While You Sleep
by Kavbj
Summary: My goal: make Kai realise! 'For someone being so intelligent and all you think he'd pick up the hints.' Now to only do that without embarassing myself too much... Pft. I'm doomed... ReixKai
1. god damn purring!

**k hey peeps. i got the sudden urge to write this so i did. it probably will only be a few chapters, not very long but its my first yaoi so i apologise if it aint the best. after reading so many great stories that were reixkai i had to give it a try. i recommend taking risks by sapphytheelf that is a very good one! **

**enjoy!**

* * *

_Poke. Poke, poke._

"Kai?"

_Poke, poke, poke._

"Ka-aiiiiiii"

_Poke. Poke. **Giggle.**_

The boy groaned and shifted slightly.

I watched with mild amusement as Max tried to wake our captain who was currently slumped in his chair, leaning against the table asleep.

Kai groaned again. Through his silvery grey bangs I could see his crimson orbs only revealed as tired slits through his long, dark lashes. The lights hit him perfectly, making those crimson slits gleam, shadows falling across his perfect, pale face. His lips were slightly open, perfect for just-.

I bowed my head as I felt my cheeks flush. Ok let's stay away from that subject Rei! As I looked back up again, I saw that Max had gotten no further than he had been a few minutes ago.

Max tried to tickle him but Kai continued to lie there. Just as Max had given up, Kai blinked once, twice and raised his head.

He rubbed his eyes with a loose fist and looked around. "Wha?" he then realised where he was and shook his head. He stood, swayed, regained his balance and then stumbled out of the kitchen, passing Hiro on his way.

Hiro replaced Kai. "Is he ok? He looked kinda flushed."

Max shrugged. "Yeah I think so. Probably just tired still."

I turned to the fridge and began getting things out of it. "Can you go tell Ty and Diachi that I'm getting dinner ready now. Last time I did, a few of my body parts almost got detached."

"Yeah I'll go." Chuckled Max.

Hearing whispering behind us, Max and I turned to find Hiro sitting there with his eyes closed.

"What are you doing?" I asked with my eyebrow quirked.

"Praying a farewell and well-being prayer for Max."

* * *

Just as we were sitting down for dinner, Kai walked, correction fell, into the room. Tyson was sitting closest to the door and he quickly stood and slung Kai's arm across his shoulders, steadying the Russian. Hiro pressed his hand to Kai's forehead. He pulled away muttering to Kai. "You've got a really high temperature." He then turned to me and said, "I'll go get his bed ready. He needs rest." And he left the room.

"Sit him down." I said softly so as not to cause Kai more pain. He had rested his head on Tyson's shoulder, breathing sharp and eyes shut tightly. He usually had sharp breathing when he had a bad headache, and I had seen firsthand just how bad they got sometimes.

As soon as Max and Tyson had lowered him to a chair, he stood back up, swaying.

"I'm…fine…" he panted and tried to take a step back but he fell and Tyson and Diachi caught him. They sat him back down again.

I grabbed the thermometer while Max grabbed a glass of water for him.

I 'tsk'ed when I saw how high Kai's temperature was.

"Damn Kai! That is one fever." Breathed Tyson as he read over my shoulder.

Hiro walked back in the room just as Kai was refusing the water.

"You need to drink it Kai."

Kai shot him a glare not liking being told what to do.

"I am fine!" he ground out. I saw him shift his hand slightly so that he was holding his stomach. I stepped towards him and before he could say anything, I had lifted his shirt up revealing an already blackening bruise with a savage cut in the centre. Behind me Hiro whistled.

"How did this happen?" I demanded as I took a glance at his face.

Kai tilted his head back. "Its nothing."

"Kai. How did you do this?" I asked with a bit more force.

He let out a bitter laugh. "Wouldn't you like to know." He whispered.

Shaking my head I stood.

"Well I'm going to have to bandage that and then you're going straight to bed and sleeping. No work, no nothing."

He groaned in protest as we hauled him to his feet. I put his arm over my shoulder and my hand around his waist, supporting him. He tried to push me away but his attempts were futile.

* * *

I opened the door quietly and stepped into the room. I tiptoed over to his sleeping figure and rolled my eyes at the sight.

A faint glow that was coming from the laptop that rested on the pillow illuminated Kai's features. Kai himself had his head on the opposite pillow, discs, papers, a book and a pen scattered around him. Soft music flowed from the coputer and as I listened closely I heard nothing but Russian singing.

I stopped the music and closed the laptop, and the placed it on the desk. I collected the papers, disks, pen and book and put them next to the computer.

I stopped as I was about to pull the covers up over him. The moonlight was flooding in through the window above the bed, lighting up Kai's features once more. His bangs fell gently against his closed eyelids, his lips slightly agape. He was wearing nothing but a pair of black baggy PJ pants and the steady rise and fall of his chest was captivating. How he expected to walk through a crowd without making even straight guys horny was beyond me. and I had to live in the same house as him!

I froze as he stirred, my hand hovering just above his cheek, but his steady breathing was all that broke the silence. I lowered my hand to his cheek and stroked it gingerly. Pulling my hand back, I pulled the covers up over him and began to leave. I froze in my tracks, again, and turned slowly when i heard the sound of the sheets ruffling, only to meet with twins of crimson.

Kai blinked a few times and cocked his head to the side. He yawned.

Damn this fever must be getting to him because I highly doubt he would let himself appear so vunerable in front of anyone. I put my finger to my lips. He nodded slightly, yawned again then lay back down. I gave a sigh of relief when I heard his breathing fill the room and I finally stepped back into the hallway, closing the door behind me.

Unbeknownst to me, pools of crimson had opened once more and a small smile tugged at the owners lips.

* * *

Over the week, Kai's fever had died down, the occasional hot or cold flush occuring but otherwise he had been fine.

I was currently watching the Russian beauty eat his breakfast. Yeah so it wasn't the most glamorous way to stare at someone. I mean all they do is put food in their mouths, chew and swallow. Or in Tyson's case, grab a handful, stuff it in, swallow, drink, belch then repeat. But somehow Kai made it look so fascinating.

I shook my head. Thank god I'm male. If I'm this horny when I'm a guy (gay but still a guy) then imagine how it'd be if I were female and horny. I shuddered.

Kai raised an eyebrow at me before he shook his head and continued eating his toast.

"Hello!" Hilary's voice ran through the kitchen and I almost fell from my chair as it rang in my head. Did the girl have to scream it right next to my ear? You know what don't answer that.

"You guys ready for the beach yet?" she asked.

"Almost. Just finishing breakfast."

Yes we were going to the beach. Surprisingly, Kai had agreed without hesitation and surprisingly I loved that fact for two reasons. One, I heard his voice and his eyes were open when he said it. Both are beautiful. And two. I love the beach.

It's quite weird really. I mean I'm a neko jin. Half human half cat, yadie yada, but anyway, cats hate water and apparently, according to Hiro, I am more cat than human. When I asked why he thought that he gave a me a whole list of reasons, two of them being me sleeping wherever the sun hit nicely, no matter where it be and the other being the strange phenomenon of me purring in public. But I wont go into that one.

Getting back to the subject, basically cats hate water and I adore the stuff. Sorta. Maybe. Depends. Again, complications that I wont go into.

I turned to stare at Kai only to find him no longer there.

"Rei hurry up!" called Hilary.

"Yeah dude! Let's go!" Tyson added.

I sighed. "Coming!" I called back as I trudged out the kitchen and out into the front yard to join my teammates.

And once again I am to be found staring at Kai. For someone being so intelligent and all you think he'd pick up the hints.

Anyway, he was currently in the surf, well, surfing. And by god he looked hot! The water gleamed on his skin as he trailed his hand through the wave he was currently riding, the sun hitting him perfectly. I sat up slightly as he disappeared into a barrel and disappeared from my sight. I relaxed again when he came out the other end and I got back into my Kai-watching position. Which is me with my chin on hands, lying on my stomach on the sand while Max, Tyson and Diachi bury me. It's really not that bad apart from the occasional sand crab.

Hiro and Hilary were off to who knows where and it was surprisingly quiet. Too quiet… the noise behind me that used to be Max, Tyson and Diachi had seemed to disappear. I tried to roll over so I could see where they had gone only to find myself stuck. After struggling for a few minutes I just flopped back to the ground with a sigh. And ow! There goes another sand crab.

"Re-eiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" aah so that's where my idiots had gotten to. Good I was getting worried. Pft yeah and Kai loves dressing up in a tutu. You know now that I think about that image… he really does look quite hot…

"Rei! Rei! Rei! Rei! Rei! Rei!" they continued on and on. How I manage to keep sane at all is beyond me. Oh yeah. Kai…

"Max. Max. Max. Max. Max. Max." I chanted exasperatedly.

"Can we please have some ice cream? Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please!"

"Uh… why are you asking me? Why not Hiro or Hilary?"

"Because we don't know where they are."

"Well I'm sorry I can't help you. I'm… busy." No way were they going to pull me away from my Kai!

"Busy doing what? Rei your buried past you waist in sand. What could you possibly be doing?"

Wow. Someone help. I think I may be getting too little oxygen to my brain because Tyson actually sounded intelligent then. Wow. Hell must have frozen over. Twice.

"I am… counting sand grains… yeah that's right!"

"Oh cool! Can I help?" ok then Diachi… if you find that fun then your mental problems must be worse than we originally thought. Wait don't monkeys like to pick small things from peoples hair and all? That must explain it.

Right changing the subject. "Uh we'll get ice cream on the way home ok."

"Well we won't be unburying you until we get our ice cream." Ok I cant believe I am saying this but Tyson has actually managed to sound threatening… has the world flipped or something and forgotten to take me with it? Or did I miss all the news flashes about the meteor that was passing causing strange side effects to people like these no-brainers in front of me?

"What?! You will undig me right now if you know what's good for you." I narrowed my eyes and let a fang pop over I lip. That usually works. Or not. They just stood there!

"Wow, you look like a mutated cat…."

Ok he lost me on that one. So the intimidating cat thing didn't work. Time to try plan B. the kitty cat eyes.

Yes I know it's usually the puppy dog eyes but they never seemed to work for me. So bring on the kitty cat eyes and BAM! It is having ab-so-lute-ly _no effect?!?_ T-that cant be. So now for plan C.

"Guys you better bloody well let me out of here or I'll bite off your fingers and make sure you don't receive dinner for a week!!!"

Damn, it's amazing how fast the dinner thing works. So now to just relax. Oh Kai's coming in!

I watched as he gracefully fell into the water next to him as the wave died out. He came up whipping his hair to the right to shake some of the water out of it. **(why do boys actually do that? i've alway wondered...)** He ran a hand through it and grabbed his board and began paddling in.

Ok look casual, not like some cat guy who's been stalking him for the past half hour. Ok relax and OW!! I got sand in my eye! And probably the most embarrassing thing in life happened to me at that moment. I began yowling like a cat and thrashing about, screeching at the top of my lungs. I managed to kick through my sand encasement but I don't think the others really noticed. They were too busy _gawking_ at me!

I finally stopped when the sun hit my legs, warming them up. And god damn it! I began purring.

"Rei?"

I froze and looked up. "Oh. Hey Kai."

He opened his mouth and closed it again. "Uh… hello…"

* * *

**so there ya go! i know its kinda short but i wanted it to end there. the next one for all y stories should be up soon. dnt know which will be the first up...**

**bye!**

**kavbj**


	2. sweet indulgence

chapter 2 sweet indulgence

i turned over, cursing at the sun that streamed through the open blinds. keeping my eyes shut tight i thought about the day before.

let's see… i embarrassed myself… that's nothing new. Bought ice cream for the others, tried to control sugar high Max, tried to explain how getting sand in your eye hurts so much, Diachi didn't believe me so I grabbed his ice cream and threw it in the dirt. That was funny. Then spent 5 minutes watching Kai eat his chocolate mint ice cream while mine melted all over my arm. Do you know how seductive his tongue is when it flicks out, licks the ice cream and then flicks back in? It is _very_ seductive. I seem to have a strange fascination with watching Kai eat. Bloody hormones.

I rolled out of bed with a groan only to land face first in a pile of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. "What the heck?!"

* * *

I walked over to them as a not very happy kitty. They could tell I wasn't a very happy kitty. I glared at them like a very angry kitty. And then melted into goo, like a very angry kitty, when Kai walked in, all sweaty and hot looking. And i don't just mean temperature wise.

He raised a delicate eyebrow at me. "Isn't the food supposed to go _in_ you mouth?" He then turned and called down the hallway, "Hiro if my teammates mental capacity and eating manners have been affected by Tyson's, then he's dead."

"Yeah! Whatever!" came the reply. "Just make sure you tell me first. I wanna watch."

Tyson gulped.

Their comments made think of what they could be talking about and then it hit me. The reason why I was a very angry –puddle of goo. Ahem- kitty.

"Why the hell did I fall into a pile of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?!"

* * *

I walked into the living room, struggling to get the brush through my wet hair. I had to wash it. 3 times! Just to get the damn bloody peanut butter out!

The three monsters were watching TV. Hiro was reading and Kai was laying on he couch, breathing sharper than usual and eyes shut tight.

"Hey guys! Turn the telly down!" I yelled over the sound blaring from it.

"What?"

"Turn it down!"

"What!"

"**Turn it down!**"

"**What!**"

"**TURN IT DOWN!! **Oh you know what, just forget it." I walked up and turned it off, only to find it wouldn't die, the cartoon kept playing. I tried again but still it didn't turn off. I began beating it. "Why, why, why?! Turn off! Please! Why do you hate me so?!" why am I throwing a hissy fit at a telly? Oh well. "Why, why, wh- oh."

Hiro stood there with the power point dangling from his hand.

I smiled sheepishly.

"By god, finally!" hissed Kai.

"Tell me about it! I thought it would never come out of my hair. Now if I could only get this damn brush through my hair…" judging by his look, he wasn't talking about my hair. "Uh... never mind... Do you know that Billy goats pee on their own heads to smell more attractive to females?" ok… more weird looks.

"Pigs have a cork screw penis." Kenny tried helpfully as he and Hilary walked into the room.

"Kenny!!" Hilary cried. Kai hissed and turned his head away from the noise.

"Oh sorry Kai." Whispered the Japanese girl. "Maybe you should go see a"

No! Do _not_ say the D word! No! No! No!

"Doctor. You don't seem to be getting that much better."

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She said it!

Kai sat up slowly, face paling slightly as he did. "I do not need any damn doctor. They will only tell me useless information."

"And that would be?"

"The things I already know." Ok the doctor thing hadn't gone that bad but it was sure to get worse. Kai's eyes had darkened in anger. Truth be told he looks hot when he's angry but now is not the time. … Ok yeah now's fine! I stared at his eyes unaware of the dreamy look on my face and the fact that everyone's attention was now on me.

I was receiving more looks from Kai, and not the ones that read 'I want to take you right here and now'. He got up from the sofa, said something to me and walked out of the room.

It wasn't until he had left did my brain, which really hasn't been much help to me today, process what he had said. _"You're drooling."_

Smooth Rei, real smooth.

"You're not going to get him if you keep grossing him out." Stated Hiro as he sat down on the couch again.

I sighed. "I figured. Wait! How the heck do you know?!"

Hiro smirked, though it wasn't as hot as Kai's smirk. Damn hormones. "Please, anyone could figure it out. Diachi and Tyson have probably figured it out by now."

"Figured out what?" turns out my brains working better than theirs at least. I looked to the direction that Kai had just left in.

"If you want to get him, you've got to make a move." Hiro said, not taking his eyes off of his book.

"No, you should just tell him straight up that you love him and then it can go either one of three ways. He can stay silent and just when you think he doesn't like you back, he cups your face and kisses you passionately on the lips. Or he can hug you, whisper in your ear that he loves you too and then give you a gentle kiss on the lips. How sweet!" Hilary sighed dreamily.

I pulled a face, that would be sweet but icky mushy romance isn't really my style. "And the third?" I asked.

"Huh?"

"The third thing that could happen."

"Oh… he just stares at you and then walks off and you get rejected." She said bluntly, her face losing that dreamy look.

I deadpanned. Well let's hope that I have better success then any of those three outcomes could bring. Maybe I should go with Hiro's idea, you know just go for it…

I hope he's gay too. If he isn't then there could be a few problems. But if he were then it would be perfect! The only problem would be that I would have to tell that pink fur ball that I hate her guts, I'm gay and that I'd enjoy seeing her hanging from a bridge, dead. I smiled evilly.

"Who's gay?" asked Kai as he stepped back into the room. "And how are we going to get Mariah up there… I'll help that's for sure but you've seen how fat that chick is… we'd be better of stabbing her… and she's big chested… very much so… that would add to the weight… yep we should defiantly stab her." He looked at me, waiting for a reply.

I stood there shocked. Since when did I start saying my thoughts out aloud? I soooooo told you that my brain wasn't co-operating.

Kai's face turned serious. "Rei if you come from a village were technology is as exciting for them as sugar is for Max, then how the hell did Mariah get breast implants or whatever girls do?"

When I didn't reply, he paled slightly. "They are fake… aren't they?"

* * *

I settled down on the couch, totally exhausted. Kai had taken us back to the beach for training and it was hell on earth! He made us swim! Does he seem to miss the point that I am part cat! Yes I have figured out what is with my weird liking water thing… turns out its and on and off thing. Also turns out that fresh water isn't that bad but salt water…! I shuddered.

Anyway, Kai probably spent half the day laughing his arse off at my dismay and distress. Surfing isn't as easy as Kai makes it look. Max picked it up with ease but hey he's American. That's got to be an advantage. Tyson still hadn't gotten the hand of it by the end of the day but seeing he's as fat as he is, I'm surprised he managed to stay balanced on the board for a few seconds. I find balancing easy. And today wasn't much difference… but I had to paddle out there, keep the board balanced, scramble up and then stay standing _without_ being knocked over by any waves. I spent most of our time down there trying to keep my head above the water.

Kai said he wanted us to learn surfing as it has great importance with our game style. Surfing requires balance between the board and ourself and somehow, if we can do the same in our beyblading, but with our blade, then we will… cant remember what he said after that but yes, that's what I did for training today! Oh whoop-die-friggin-do!

The plus side? I got to spend time with Mr Hottie-Hot-Hottie. I just had to pretend that I wasn't any good at surfing and that I really needed Kai's help. Not much acting and pretending went into that but anyway. It worked and Kai spent hours helping me. He also spent a lot of time laughing at me. The best part? When he had to show me how to do something, I cant remember what, and he positioned my body so that my posture and all was correct and at one stage he had to bring his hands around from behind me. He was practically hugging me! Insert girly screaming.

Now we are all sitting in the lounge room and waiting while Max chooses out a movie for us to watch. We take turns and it happens to be Maxie's turn. Greaaaaaaaat.

"Here we go!" he turned around and showed us the film he had chosen. I can't remember if I've seen it before or not but I was surprised at hic choice. No cartoons? Romance?! Impressive…

"By god, you're kidding right?" I heard Kai breathe. He stood, bones popping and walked off to the kitchen.

"Kai? Where are you going? We've already got sugar and popcorn." Yelled Diachi as he watched the retreating figure, scarf flowing majestically behind him.

Kai didn't reply but soon returned with two small bowls, one filled with strawberries and the other chocolate fudge sauce.

He sat down on the floor, his back against the couch and his head resting in between my knees. Now before you perverts go and get any steamy thoughts, no it was not in _that_ kind of way. Though no matter which type of way it was, my cheeks still flushed. Maybe he returned my feelings?

"Healthy verse sweet?" Tyson remarked as he peered over Kai's shoulder and looked at the food the Russian had gotten.

And there go my dreams. Of course he would rather sit near me then the pig on legs. Wait, all pigs have legs… unless their dinner… the pig on _two_ legs.

We all watched as Kai held a strawberry by the stalk and dipped it in the chocolate, he then brought it to his mouth and took a tender bite. A bit of chocolate got on his lip when he ate the rest of the strawberry and his tongue flicked out and licked it off.

I stared at him. Again with the eating thing! How on god's green earth does he make it look so seductive?

He grabbed another strawberry, dipped it in chocolate then brought it to his mouth. Just as he was about to take a bite, I accidentally, yes _accidentally_ bumped his arm with my leg, causing his arm to jolt. He tipped his head back and glared at me, at the same time his tongue came back out and he licked the chocolate from his lips very slowly.

He then popped the strawberry in to his mouth and chewed slowly, never taking his eyes off of me.

Hiro laughed and I immediately turned my head away from Kai and glared at the boy.

"What's so funny?" murmured Kai. As I looked down at him I saw how tired he was. He leaned his head even further onto the couch and I gingerly reached a hand out and began running my finger through his hair. He didn't say anything so I continued.

"Yes Hiro?" I asked, "What is funny?"

Hiro smiled and held up his book. "Just my book. One character is in love with another and trying to get the other to realise but he doesn't seem to realise that the other is seducing him more then he is seducing the other."

I blinked, not getting what he meant before it hit me. Kai was seducing me! But was it teasing, playful or serious? I sighed and twisted a strand of Kai's hair around my finger.

"Right well if you lot are done, can we start the movie now?"

* * *

During the movie, I could hardly pay attention. How could I when _he_ kept eating his strawberries? I leaned down and plucked the one he was currently holding from his hand. He frowned at his hand and then grabbed another one. I stuck the one I had taken into my and a sweet taste filled my mouth. Niiiiice.

I looked up at the movie again and frowned. Uh, is anyone forgetting that we kind of have Diachi in the room? I looked at the younger boy and he had turned his face away and made a face that clearly showed disgust. I couldn't blame him.

I don't think I've seen anyone suck faces like those two were. I wonder how much saliva got passed between them?

Ooooooooooook. Diachi, close your eyes.

The girl was still kissing the guy but was trying to strip him. And at the moment she was succeeding. She had just finished getting his shirt off and she was now going for the belt.

I felt a movement against my leg and I looked down in time to see Kai drop the two bowls, the chocolate sauce going everywhere and seeping into the carpet. I went to turn to Hiro to tell him that I would clean it after the movie only to find him not there. Oh yeah, he'd gone to make more popcorn seeing the pig on two legs had eaten most of it.

Kai groaned and I looked back down to him. He brought his hands up and clutched his head. Slowly he began rocking back and forth and I started getting worried. He whimpered and shook his head, the rest of his body trembling slightly.

I scrambled off the couch and crouched in front of my captain.

"Kai?" I asked quietly.

"Yo dude, is he ok?" asked Tyson as he looked at Kai with slight concern. I shrugged.

Kai yelped, shoulders shaking violently. I pulled him into an embrace, hoping to calm him down. He buried his face against my chest and I rubbed his back.

"Make it stop… please stop! It hurts!" he mumbled. His breathing picked up and he grabbed my shirt, holding on to it tightly, teeth clenched tightly to stop him from crying out in pain. But he did. He cried out and arched his back as though he had just been hit.

Kai began thrashing wildly and I held onto him tightly, never wanting to let go.

Hiro walked back into the room, three bowls of popcorn in hand but he quickly dropped them as he saw Kai and me.

He came over and said "lay him down." So with Hiro's help I did. And Kai cried out again, one crystalline tear dropping from his lashes as he kept his eyes shut tight.

Between the two of us, we tried to keep Kai still. I held his arms down and Hiro was holding his hips and legs down. Somehow Kai managed to get his leg around; about to kick Hiro who blocked it before it reached its mark.

Kai wrenched one of his arms free from my grip ad grabbed the waistband of his pants, mouth shut tight. He kept turning his head away but finally he opened his mouth. And he screamed.

I watched as my captain started sobbing like a child, screams escaping his hoarse throat. I saw Hiro quickly pull away and his hands fly to his mouth, his face pale. I looked questionly at him and he shook his head. "I just figured it out." He murmured. He crawled up next to me and helped me hold Kai down.

"Rei listen to me," Hiro's face and voice were fierce as he continued on. "He thinks we're trying to ra-hurt him. We need to be gentle but we have to hold him down. So he will still think he's in danger."

"What's actually going on?" demanded Tyson as he and the others loomed over us.

"I think he's caught in one of his memories. We've tried calling him but he isn't responding. That's all that I think it could be. A flashback."

Kai screamed again and I turned away, unable to look.

"Rei." I turned to face Hiro again. "This is going to sound ridiculous but you need to kiss him. But gently. He needs to now that we aren't trying to hurt him, that someone is trying to help."

"What?"

"Look! Just do it unless you want your crush to suffer more! You're the one who likes him! Do it!"

I looked at him. "You like him too…" I breathed.

"What? No. I'm with Brooklyn. You know that."

"Then why do you look at him like that?"

"When I worked with BEGA, I found Kai's record. The kid's been through a hell of a lot. No amount of talking and explaining would make us comprehend just how bad it's been for him. So I decided that I would look out for him, like I do for Tyson."

I looked down at Kai and bit my lip. Then, leaning down, I placed a gentle kiss on his forehead and one on his cheek.

"Good I think its working. He wont remember any of this so it you need to take it further don't worry." Muttered Hiro.

Kai's thrashing wasn't as strong. It was working! I continued placing butterfly kisses on his cheek and I moved to his jaw line. But he didn't like that.

He pulled away, almost pulling out of Hiro's grip as well.

Ok so I wont be doing that again. The only thing I could think of was… I leaned down again, hesitantly coming closer and closer to Kai. Gently I pressed my lips to Kai's and waited.

He arched up ad screamed into my mouth, sobbing. But it worked. He just shook now, and sobs still escaped his lips but he didn't thrash about and he had stopped screaming.

Not pulling away, I pulled Kai up and when he was firmly in my arms, I pulled away and sighed. It had worked. I felt my shirt getting wet and I looked down. Tears still leaked from Kai's eyes, which he had now opened, but his eyes were glazed and unseeing.

I cradled him like a child. Hiro rocked back on his heels and gave a relieved sigh. He smiled weakly at me and I returned the smile.

I looked back down at the boy in my arms and found him close to falling asleep. So I did what my mother used to do to me. I hugged him tighter and began rocking back and forth, letting him know I was there and letting him know that someone cared.


	3. codenames, clothes and lightswitches

**hey hey! hope you all had a wonderful christmas/hanukkah/winter solstice/quanza**

**this was supposed to be up before chrissie, on the 24th, but my parents decided to surprise us by going away instead, so this is late and so my christmas chappies are gonna run a bit late and that means my new years chappies are gonna run late. damn! sorry bout that.**

* * *

**_Codenames, Clothes and Light-switches_**

Not to be seen, not to be seen… eek! I rolled behind the couch as Max walked past the doorway. When I was sure that he was gone, I crawled back out and continued making my way to the kitchen. Pulling out the walkie-talkie that I had gotten out of a cereal box, I pressed down the button saying talk.

"This is Majestic White Tiger, the Almighty Kai-Watcher, Fabulous Pink Apron-Wearing Cook, I am nearing the acquired destination, over and out." Pocketing the walkie-talkie and feeling quite smug with my codename, I crept into the kitchen and dived behind the bench.

I could hear the movements of Pig-On-Two-Legs, Scary-Sugar-Addict, Stupid-Girl-With-Stupid-Handbag-Who-Can-Really-Make-A-Punch-If-She-Wants-To-Whether-It's-With-The-Bag-Or-Fist, Talking-Monkey-With-Really-Big-Mouth, I'm-Like-23-Or-Something-So-I-Rule and Mr-I-Need-To-Get-A-Life-Nerdy-Dude-Guy. The only person missing was Mr-Hottie-Hot-Hottie.

Peeking around the corner, I scanned the busy – luckily large – room, grinning triumphantly when I spotted my target. My face fell when I realised _where_ my target was sitting. Someone's wallet, which was my target, was sitting on the table in the middle of the room. Luckily for me, the, you know what I don't think I'll be bothered going on with the codenames, they take too long, so how about we call them, them.

Carrying on, luckily for me, them were only just getting breakfast ready and – hold up! Now this doesn't make any sense. I sat there pondering on what I should call them before finally giving up. Yay! No more pain for my poor brain! Which I am due to buy a new one anytime soon now… hmm… anyway, back into spy mode.

I crouched down low and made the ever-familiar signs for Byakugan. Damn you Byakugan! You've failed me!

Well I guess I'll just use my Spidie-powers! "Psch! Psch!" oh what do you know, they've failed as well.

So I scampered like a scared little animal to the big brown table with the little money-filled wallet. I snatched it down and hid under the table. Mentally cackling in evil delight, I looked at the wallet in my hands. Now I would be able to do my Christmas shopping. Alone and in peace. It'd been weeks since the movie problem and it had started snowing too and now Christmas was only a week away.

And here is my forever-growing to do list:

Put up the Christmas tree. Yes sadly that _still_ hasn't been done.

Go Christmas shopping. Which is actually part of today's to do list.

Plan Christmas party.

Plan Christmas lunch.

Figure who is and isn't going to be here for Christmas.

Write Christmas cards and send them to those who need the Christmas cards to be sent to them.

Convince Santa I've been a good boy.

Convince Santa that Kai makes a fabulous present for a desperate Rei.

Convince Santa that giving Mariah a knife, a very strong bottle of Vodka, or maybe some very strong depressants and a pre-written suicide letter would be the perfect gift for her.

And the list goes on and on.

Snapping out of my reverie, I learnt that word yesterday! Kenny used it. Anyway, I looked down at the wallet and frowned. Oh corpus bones! This isn't my wallet.

I opened it and found money. Lots and lots of money.

Ok it couldn't be Tyson's; he doesn't even know where his is. Max spent all his money the other day. Diachi probably doesn't even know what a wallet is let alone how to use one. Hiro always keeps his near him, so it could be his. Kenny probably has his kept somewhere in those unfashionable pants of his that went out in 1782. Hilary keeps hers in that retched handbag of hers and Kai… my eyes grew big. This could very well be the wallet of Kai Hiwatari!! Insert girly scream.

Grinning madly, I stuffed the wallet in my pocket and began crawling out from under the table, forgetting to check my surroundings. And that was my mistake.

"Rei?"

I looked up to meet crimson orbs. Uh, crud.

"Hey Kai!"

How come this seems very familiar?

I have officially failed as a spy.

Then why didn't I use my Byakugan?! Oh right, that doesn't work. Ok I have officially failed at replacing Neji. Yes _Neji_. Not Hinata, the stupid whining brat. Also Hinata's a girl, and I'm not and therefore, Neji fits the part quite well.

"what are you doing?"

"um…" I moved my hands into the web-shooting position, the one that Spider-Man uses, and tried my Spidie-powers again, it was time to make my Spidie-escape. "Psch, psch." I fired at the ceiling but nothing happened. "Man, I have _got_ to get these things fixed!"

"Do I want to know?" asked Kai as he stepped over me.

"Probably not."

* * *

And now I sat moodily eating my toast. I had grudgingly given Kai his wallet back, had managed to come up with a ridiculous and totally unbelievable story as to why I was hiding under a table and creeping around like a spy and just my luck, the codenames had somehow come out. Luckily Kai's didn't but everyone else's… oh boy.

Hilary had punched me with both the handbag and her fist, Hiro had just simply said, I'm 24, therefore I rule even more, and the whole time he had been smirking while Hilary hit me. Tyson had merely protested with a hey! Diachi had immediately shouted, not a monkey! Kenny had gone onto some scientific talk about how the great minds of the world had… I can't remember, though I do remember thinking, by gosh! I am one of the great minds of the world and my life is way better than that! Max had stayed silent and when I looked at him, expecting to see the tears that he always managed to bring up to make a guy feel guilty, he had begun giggling hysterically and uncontrollably. Though the three empty packets of some sort of sugary confectionary that had fallen from his pockets were pretty self-explanatory.

Kai had not stopped teasing me about it since; especially what I had use for my codename. Luckily, I had stopped myself from saying the Kai watching part.

"I'll just grab one of my credit cards and you can take the wallet, oh great pink apron wearer." I glared at him.

"Do you know Chinese?"

Kai shrugged, so I, taking this as a no, began saying every frickin curse I knew in frickin Chinese.

When I finished my oh so dramatic speech Kai said, "Wow those are some interesting words."

"You know Chinese?!"

He rolled his eyes and mumbled something that was Russian, I think. He flipped open the wallet, looked at it then flipped it closed.

"Ok where's my credit card?" he asked as he turned to me.

"Um… in the dishwasher, I used it for the peanut butter."

To my surprise, he got up and began walking to the dishwasher.

"You believe me?" I asked incredulously.

He nodded and opened the dishwasher. Just like I had said, the card was sitting there all sticky and peanut buttery.

Kai picked it up using the corner and wrinkled his nose in disgust. He then proceeded in washing it under the tap.

"Hey you know how there are those people who are afraid of peanut butter sticking to the roof of their mouth, are you one of those people?"

"No but I do suffer from Touchedbyrei-aphobia." He replied as he dried the card. "You know the fear of things that have been touched by Rei Kon for too long?"

I sat there brooding.

"I'm leaving in half an hour, be ready by then." He called as he walked out the room.

"Where are you going to go?" asked Tyson.

"Christmas shopping."

"Can we come?"

"Let me think about that… no."

"Ka-ai!"

"Absolutely,"

My jaw dropped and Tyson looked hopeful.

"Definitely,"

Hiro's jaw dropped and Max and Diachi began looking hopeful.

"No shadow of a doubt about it,"

Kenny and Hilary's jaws dropped.

"_No_."

Nice answer.

"Meanie." mumbled Tyson. "Oi Rei, where's the Milo cereal?"

"Top shelf of the pantry."

Tyson walked over and pulled it down and then grabbed the container he usually kept it in.

Opening the box, Tyson poured the cereal in. As he was nearing the end he looked around. "Where's the lid?"

"Still in the container."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me!"

"How could you not notice a big white plastic thing in the middle of tiny brown crunchy things?"

"I don't know!" luckily there was still a corner peeking through. Tyson grabbed it and pulled the lid out before sticking it on the container.

"Where's the little flappy thingy?"

"I don't know, probably still in the container."

"Ugh! Where?"

"In the container."

"Where in the container!"

I shrugged and watched on amused, as Tyson looked through the clear plastic and tried to find the white flap in the midst of chocolate cereal.

"I can't find it!" he whined. He held it above him and looked through the bottom and swore.

"What?" I asked teasingly.

"Its stuck at the bottom." And sure enough, there was a tiny slit of white. "How am I supposed to get it out?"

I shrugged as I kept my barely suppressed smile hidden.

Tyson got another container and began pouring the cereal into that until he was able to pull out the flap. He placed it next to the lid then stared at the cereal. Picking up the second container, he tried to pour the cereal back into the first container, quickly stopping when the cereal began falling onto the bench. Tyson scooped the cereal back up and put it back in the first container.

Grabbing the blue lid of the second container, Tyson tried to use that to stop the cereal from going everywhere as he tried to put it back in the clear container. Once again, cereal went everywhere.

Ignoring the fact that cereal was scattered all along the bench, Tyson turned and went to grab a spoon, cursing as he stood on bits of cereal. Scooping up the cereal on the ground, he marched over to the bin and chucked them in with a "there! Now stay!"

Grabbing a teaspoon, Tyson walked back over and I laughed as he tried to scoop the cereal into the clear container. Realising that he was getting nowhere fast, Tyson grabbed a dessertspoon and repeated the process.

Next to me I could here Max laughing as he attempted to drink his juice.

Giving up on the spoon, Tyson poured the rest of the cereal in from one container to the other, once again ignoring the cereal that went everywhere.

Satisfied that he had finally achieved his goal, Tyson put some in a bowl and got out the milk. He stared at the milk as he poured it on his cereal but it was nowhere near enough.

Max and I erupted into laughter, Max's juice spurting across the bench.

"Argh!" screamed Tyson. "We're out of milk!"

* * *

I am so saving up for a car. Well first I need to learn how to drive but I am so saving up for a car. Preferably something expensive, with leather and all the latest stuff. Preferably a car exactly like Kai's.

With beige leather, 6 disc thingy, nice shiny wheel things, blue tooth speaky thing, sunroof, seat warmers, dvd player, sport drive mode thing, silver button things, light up number thing. Ok yeah, so I know nothing about cars, but I do know a good-looking car when I see one.

Laughter rang through the speakers and I looked to Kai who had a small smile on his lips. Looking out the window again, I smiled. It was nice knowing that I was one of the few that Kai was fine to drop his barriers in front of.

Kai was currently using the blue tooth thingy and speaking to Tala.

I had told Kai what had happened in the kitchen when he had left and then Tala had called. Judging by the few times that Tyson's name popped up, I guessed that Kai was passing the story onto Tala.

I heard my name pop up and I looked to Kai, trying to read his facial expression.

Tala switched to English. "Oh really kitty?"

I didn't say anything, not really sure how the speaky thing worked.

"Just say something." Explained Kai, seeing my obvious confusion. Bad Rei, bad! You are supposed to look smart in front of Kai, god damn it!

"Uh right…" I blushed.

Tala continued. "So putting you in a kitchen alone with a wallet after having watched too much TV. would be a bad idea would it kitty?"

Ignoring the insult that had been weaved in, I immediately defended myself, - "hey! Don't call me kitty!" - against the kitty. Yes against the kitty, and not the insult.

Tala and Kai chuckled.

I tried to think of something to say back. Uh… I got it! "Hey! Shut up!"

The two of them laughed harder.

I muttered something under my breath. Ok Tala wasn't making it very easy for me to impress Kai, now what…?

I thought, and thought and thought and – what is that ticking noise?!

"It's the indicator." Replied Kai.

I said that out loud?

"Well duh." Laughed Tala.

God damn it, I, the Majestic White Tiger and Fabulous Pink Apron Wearing Cook, am losing it!

"Is that the codename you were talking about?" asked Tala.

"Yeah." Replied Kai, his eyes flickering over to me as he smirked.

I huffed. I personally think that the codename, the Majestic White Tiger and Fabulous Pink Apron Wearing Cook is a good codename, I should throw in a superman pose at the end.

"Oh fabulous idea, though you may want to make your superhero name a little bit shorter." Suggested Tala.

I could strangle him right now.

"Now that's not very nice."

You know what, I'm going to stop thinking now.

"Good idea." Agreed Kai. "Anyway Tals, we're here. See ya."

"Yeah bye. Oh wait! Ian wants to say something. Here bite size."

"Its _Ian_! Hey Kai."

"Hey Shrimpo."

Ian growled. "Anyway how are you?"

"Good."

Ian switched into Russian, Kai following suit. At one stage Kai started laughing and soon he was clutching his sides. I could hear Ian laughing as well, and so was whoever was with him.

"Ok see ya Ian."

"Bye! Bye Rei."

I mumbled my good-bye and Kai hung up. He gripped the steering wheel tightly and his fingers danced along it. A sudden look of longing passed across his face and then it was gone. Letting his hands drop to his lap, he undid his seat belt and smiled wearily at me. "Sorry about that. Come on lets go. I'll by you a new apron to make up for it. How much do you like daisies?"

* * *

"Rei I –"

"Shut up!"

"Rei he's right yo-"

"I said shut up!"

_Bring bring._

"I said _shut up!!_" oh right, that's my phone. I can tell because it's vibrating against my leg and by the lame ring tone. I desperately need a new one. And I don't just mean the ring tone. I pulled it out and looked at the ID, groaning when I saw it was the pig.

"What's Porky want?" that there was my friend Jesse. He works at the clothes shop that Kai and I are currently in and if I weren't drooling after Kai, I'd be after Jesse. Imagine a platinum blonde Zac Effron with purple eyes.

"Don't know, don't care." With that, I disconnected the call and returned to my problem.

I had come to see Jesse the previous week and when I had been talking to him, he had shown me the new items coming into the store for Christmas. I had gawked at them and as Jesse had put them away he had snickered, "bet Kai would look good in some of those."

So now I was staring at the clothes as though they were the source of all my current problems. Well they were but it sounded cool being able to say that. It's got some poetic charm to it.

"Oh yes Rei, that flimsy piece of cloth has so much poetic charm." Kai rolled his eyes and Jesse sniggered.

Here we go with the talking aloud thing again. Greaaaaaaaaaaaat. So Kai thinks that shirt is flimsy, ok onto the next item. I turned to go to the next lot of items, hearing Jesse's cry of, "Rei watch the-"

BAM!!

"Rack…"

Oh great, just great. My head is now throbbing painfully and I just embarrassed myself, again. Maybe I should try hiring myself out as some sort of comedian act. Heaps of people would get a hoot out of my embarrassment and humiliation.

How I managed to trip over whatever I tripped over and then wack my head and then end up skidding into the wall is beyond me.

Jesse and Kai's faces came into view. Jesse looked somewhat concerned and Kai, well Kai seemed to be trying very hard to not laugh.

A string of curses left my mouth as I took Jesse's offered hand. "You know what? I give up!"

"How about you try some other time?" suggested Jesse. He knew who I was shopping for even though the person I was shopping for didn't know I was shopping for them even though the person I was shopping for was standing next to me which made discussing what I was shopping for difficult because the person I was shopping for wasn't allowed to know I was shopping for them because the whole reason I was shopping for them was because I needed to go shopping for them so that I had a Christmas present for them, a Christmas present in which I had gone shopping for even thought they didn't know I had been shopping for them even though they were with me when I went shopping for them and that made shopping for them difficult because I couldn't let them know I was shopping for them so hopefully they'll be able to say a few things that'll give me a few hints while I'm shopping for them although they wont know they're dropping hints while I'm shopping with them because I will be doing a very good job of shopping for them without them knowing that I'm shopping for them, the only problem is that, that person has told me not to got shopping for them and now I am shopping for them and while they're with me so when they figure out they took me shopping for themselves in a way, then they'll probably be annoyed that I went shopping for them when they told me not to go shopping for them and this again makes it difficult to go shopping for them because I have to convince them that I'm shopping for someone else and not shopping for them therefore they wont ever know that I went shopping for them until they open the present that I had gone shopping for and by then it'll be too late for I will have already gone shopping for them.

See, it all makes perfect sense!

"What does?" asked Kai.

Stupid brain!

* * *

My feet! God! I am never doing all my Christmas shopping in one day ever again! Kai and I had been at that damn mall for who knows how damn long. Though we did eventually return to the clothes store and Jesse helped us, me, out again and I ended up with the present for the person I was shopping for even though they didn't know I was shopping for them even though they were with me when I was shopping for them and – oh you get it. But yes, now Christmas shopping is off my list. And now sleep has taken top priority and my bed is extremely comfortable so if you don't mind…

* * *

I woke up, scrambled out of bed and just like I did when I was a child, I ran for the person I felt safest with, no matter where they were. So I ran from the room I was currently sharing with Diachi, Max and Tyson and sprinted down the hallway, letting instinct take over.

I pushed open the door and scrambled into the desired bed, automatically crawling up next to the desired person. Mmm, cinnamon. I breathed in, already relaxing. I curled up to the desired person and sighed.

Said person sat up taking me with them. "What the hell?" they looked at me. "Rei?"

As well as the voice, the sparkling crimson eyes that seemed to stand out in the dark so well gave them away.

Kai turned the bedside lamp on and looked at me.

"Hey Kai." I whispered, refusing to look into his eyes. Damn this was embarrassing. "I'll go now." I tried to hop out of bed but Kai stopped me. He forced me to look into his eyes and he searched them. Releasing a sigh, he pulled me into a warm embrace and my eyes widened. Moaning happily I leant into his chest, enjoying the warmth. I should try this again. I am so having sugar straight before bed again. Stuff the nightmares if this comes after!

"What's up?" he asked gently.

"Nightmare." I mumbled, breathing in his scent. I always knew there had to be a reason as to why I loved cinnamon. "You smell like cinnamon."

Kai blinked and I chuckled, closing my eyes and breathing in again.

"What was the nightmare about?"

Like hell I was gonna tell him! "Uh… I forget…" rampaging chocolate dinosaurs in a world of candy where my team and I are made of marshmallow that Mr Cadbury has sent dinosaurs after doesn't sound that frightening…

"Well lets just go back to sleep. And you can sleep here from now on if you'd like. Putting up with Tyson's snoring is hard enough but now both Diachi and Tyson?"

I laughed and Kai turned the light off. He lay down and pulled me down with him.

I curled up to him, still amazed by the heat he radiated all the time and I rested my head on his chest, just like I used to when we were forced to share a bed when we were travelling.

I just lay there for a while, my head rising and falling with the movements of Kai's chest. Suddenly the sound of thunder ripped through the air and lightening split the sky, lighting up the room. I whimpered and curled into Kai more.

He laughed softly. Hmm, I thought he was asleep.

More thunder, more lightening and I whimpered again. Kai stroked my hair and hushed me. "Its ok kitten."

I love the sensation of his fingers running through my hair. Without being able to stop myself I mewled. Oh god, don't let me – damn! I started purring.

Kai laughed again and I blushed. I have sooooooo got to do something about that purr.

* * *

I stretched out and looked at the clock. 9 pm. I was soooooo tired. So much planning!

"Hey Rei your futon's gone." Stated Max as he walked into the room.

"Yeah I packed it up this morning."

"Why?"

"I'm sleeping in Kai's room."

Max looked at me and Tyson and Diachi paused the game they were playing and looked at me also. Hiro put his book down and moved into my view.

Ok why are they all looking at me like that?

"So you're sleeping in Kai's room?"

I nodded.

"With Kai?"

I nodded.

"In the one bed?"

I nodded. Wait! They weren't thinking?

"You pervs!" I exclaimed.

"No we're not thinking that!" defended Tyson.

"Just… way to go Rei!" Max smiled at me in awe.

"About time you made a move." Muttered Hiro.

"What?!" ok now I'm confused.

Kai walked past the room calling, "I'm going to bed if anyone gives a shit."

"You know what, I think I might hit the hay too." Anything to get outta here! I stood and left, blushing when Tyson gave me a thumbs up and mouthed 'good luck.' And Diachi and Max were grinning like idiots.

Halleluiah Hilary wasn't here.

I crawled next to Kai and snuggled up to him, appreciating the heat that was once again radiating from him.

"What was going on there?"

Oh crap, don't tell me he heard. "Nothing, just a bit of confusion." Thank god that was somewhat true, I am a horrible liar most times and Kai knows it.

I breathed in his scent and mumbled a good night before letting my eyes slip shut. My last thoughts, you're beautiful while you sleep Kai.

* * *

I groaned and woke up. It was cold, and where was my heat source? Kai's spot next to me was empty. I sat up and looked around, screaming when a hand covered my mouth.

"Quiet." He hissed. Oh it's Kai. "There's someone here." There was a crash.

"Its probably one of the others"

Kai shook his head. "Its not there footsteps. They seem familiar but I doubt it's who I think it is."

"You can recognise someone by their footsteps? Don't you need foot_prints_?"

Again Kai shook his head. "Yours are soft and have a strange rhythm. You start on your toes as though you're tip-toeing but then your heel comes down with a soft sound and you've got a rhythm you'd expect from a cat."

Wow he's smart. No wonder I love 'im.

"Come on." He whispered as he took my hand.

We crept to where we heard the crash. Heel toe, heel toe. Or tip, tip, flat, flat. Or-

"Will you stop changing your footsteps, even if you do I'll recognise them." Snapped Kai.

Dang how'd he realise my plan, told you he was smart.

We were now in the lounge and there with their back to us was whomever Kai had heard earlier. They tripped over something and a string of curses left their mouth.

Kai dragged me behind the couch and told me to wait there. I peeked over the top and watched as Kai snuck up behind the figure but they heard him. They spun on their heel and threw a punch, which Kai was quick to block. He ducked another punch and tried to take the foe's feet out. No such luck. I watched amazed as the two started fighting, letting out a small 'eep' as the foe was slammed into the wall, and then let out a worried gasp as Kai was sent hurtling into the coffee table. Luckily it didn't break.

I heard footsteps behind me and turned to find the rest of the team coming. I motioned for them to stay quiet.

Crawling out from behind the couch, I stood and tried to find the light switch. Making sure to stay out of the way of Kai and whoever, I started searching.

Creep, creep, cree- ow! I hopped on one foot, rubbing my shin. Stupid table. Creep, creep, cree- ah! Oof. That there would be the ground. Congratulations on discovering it Rei. I pulled myself up again and the process began again. Creep, creep, cre- bam! Ow, ow, my nose. Stupid wall. I put my hands against the wall and felt around for the light switch, letting out an irritated sigh when I finally found it.

I flicked the lights on just as the figure grabbed Kai's on coming fist, using that to pull him into the figures chest. The figure wrapped their arms around Kai's petite form and buried their face in the crook of Kai's neck.

"Hey gorgeous."

* * *

**there you go! just over 4,500 words. the cereal thing actually happened to my sister, it was soooo funni and i've got a cousing who actually used a card to spread the peanut butter cos all the knives were in the wash. o.o' so yes...**

**bye!**

**and happy new years if another chappie isnt up befor then...**

**by the way, thank u guys sooooooooo much for the reviews! 9 of em! yay!**


	4. he gets weirder by the minute, i swear!

**_He Gets Weirder By The Minute, I Swear_**

"Hey gorgeous."

Kai breathed in, astounded, before letting his body relax and a small smile crossed his lips. He threw his arms around the figure's neck and the figures arms slipped to Kai's waist and pulled him closer, both of them tightening their holds. Kai leant his forehead against the figure's shoulder and let out a breathy laugh.

"You've got to be kidding me." He murmured.

"Only an early Merry Christmas present, Hun." Whispered the figure.

Shockingly red hair, clear icy blue eyes, beautiful ivory skin, yep. It could only be one person.

"Tala."

* * *

I set out the hot chocolates and the three coffees. One for Hiro, one for Kai and one for Tala. I think he drinks coffee… and I made it the way Kai has it. You know black with no sugar and milk and its so strong it makes people like me respond to it almost as though they're on catnip? Trust me, you do. Not. Want. To know!

But just in case, I set out an extra hot chocolate.

Tala said his thanks, actually switching to English for a second and skulled the coffee. Kai took a small sip of his and placed it back down. He nodded his thanks to me, his mouth still spewing Russian.

I heard a thud and sighed as I pulled Tyson's head up by his hair again. Though I couldn't blame him. It was now 4 am. We had been in the kitchen for 15 minutes and Kai and Tala had been talking hurriedly the entire time. Though I wouldn't know. They were speaking so fast, every time they stopped and waited for the other person, you kept thinking they had said one really big word that meant everything they were trying to say.

Kai went to take another sip just as I was prodding Tyson's cheek and telling him to wake up but Tala's hand shot out and took the cup from the younger Russian. When Kai glared at him, Tala pushed over the hot chocolate and said, "You did not just come off a something-long hour flight. I need it more than you." He then proceeded to lean over and give Kai a kiss on the cheek. Kai just pouted slightly and drank the hot chocolate.

What, no pushing or glaring? I frowned. They weren't together were they? I felt a pang of jealousy. No, Kai would've told us, told me, wouldn't have he?

"So why are you here a quarter to four in the morning, stumbling through the living room and trying to find a light switch, just like Rei so graciously did?" asked Kai as he leaned back in his chair and rose an eyebrow.

"Well, it was a surprise wasn't it? At least that part went according to plan. The whole, don't worry kitty will pick you up at the airport just like he promised, didn't."

Wait, I was supposed to pick him up?

"Yeah, you were."

"Oh yeah you called yesterday!" I exclaimed, smiling broadly. "…Oops?"

"Yeah oops. Well then I had to get a taxi, come here, find everyone was still asleep and then curse Rei in every language I knew… that actually took a while."

I blushed and ducked my head.

"But why so early?" groaned Tyson as his head hit the table again.

"For a couple of reasons, one of them being that I wanted to be the first thing my lil phoenix saw when he woke up in the morning."

_My_ lil phoenix? I bit my lip.

"Thank god that didn't happen, I would have died from the shock of seeing you first thing in the morning." Said Kai, putting his hands on his face in mock horror. Tala punched him lightly.

Tala stood up and walked over to where his suitcase was sitting in the corner. He opened the front zip and pulled out a starburst lollipop. He pulled off the wrapping and stuck the lollipop in his mouth, letting out a satisfied moan. He walked back over and sat down again.

Kai raised a sceptical eyebrow. "You're still eating those things? I'm surprised your teeth haven't rotted away."

I sniffed. Mm. That lollipop smells sweet. Mm a world where the trees are lollipops and the chocolate dinosaurs are friendly and being made of marshmallow has its privileges because you can bite off your own fingers and not feel any pain. Man I need to get back to bed!

"Well go then." Stated Kai as he rested his chin in his hand and blinked slowly. Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?

"No I'm feeling a bit feverish as well." Said Hiro as he stifled a yawn. And cue Tyson.

"Hey do you guys want me and Rei to leave the room, cos I think we're heating up the room, right Rei?"

I flexed my muscles and grinned slyly.

Tala and Kai's comeback was quick, and simultaneous. "What, with your body fat?"

Damn how did they do that?

* * *

I groaned and rolled over. Stretching, I looked through sleepy eyes at the clock on the side of the bed. 7:32 it flashed. Still waaaaaaaaaaay too early. Good night. Morning? I sighed as I closed my eyes again.

"Gooooooooooooood morning!"

I cried out and turned hurriedly to the left in shock at the loud noise, the sheets restricting my movements and therefore, assisting in the hurtling of my body to the floor. I groaned in pain and tried to kick the sheets away, no such luck. Suddenly a whooooooole lotta red filled my vision. Ah, dear, dear Tala. So innocent in waking me up early for the second time in one day and yet soooooooooooo dead! I glared at him and he smiled.

"Aww, you know you love me." He purred as he offered me a hand, his tongue curling around his lollipop. You know the eating thing must have something to do with Russians. That is one seductive looking tongue. Nowhere near as seductive as Kai's though. I gladly took his hand and he helped pull me up. But bam! Oh look it's the floor again. Stupid sheets.

"Come on! Hurry up! We've got a lot to do today. Breakfast is ready and is already out on the table. Hurry if you want to get any. Though Kai suggested we wake the garbage disposals later. That way, you others got at least something."

Ok slow down Tala! My brain aint that morning friendly.

"Garbage disposals? They sleep? There's more than one of them? We actually have one?"

Tala raised an eyebrow and turned his head to look at whoever he wanted to damn well look at. "He really isn't a morning person, is he?"

"Never has been." Came the reply. Wait! I know that voice! Kai!

"Kai!" I sat up and grinned at him from over the bed. He was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed.

I tried to stand with a hurried, "I'll be there in a sec! Hang on!" but nooooooo; the _sheets_ didn't want it that way!

So for the fourth time today, floor, Rei. Rei, floor.

* * *

"They're u-up!" sung Tala as he walked into the kitchen, followed by two very pissed animals. And yes I mean, the garbage disposals. And yes, I mean Tyson and Diachi.

Kai said something in Russian, and Tala replied in Russian, a very smug yet creepy look on his face. The one look that I never want to see on his face when I'm the topic of conversation, which I always should be but aaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway.

"Goooooooooooood morning!"

I cried out again, my milk flying from my mouth, as once again, those words rang through my head.

"You really need to pick up on your eating manners." Commented Hilary as she looked at me with distaste. I growled and made strangling motions with my fingers. Damn girl.

"Ex-cuuuuse me?" Hilary put a hand on her hip and raised her eyebrows, looking at me expectantly.

"Did that come out loud?"

"Uuuuuuuuuh-huh." She brought her other hand up and now had two hands on her hips.

"You're in for it now dude." Sniggered Tyson.

"I… he… you, what I mean is…. Um… well that's the exact same thing that Tala did this morning and it sort of…" I trailed off. Great Rei, you're gonna have an angry girl and her handbag against you already. And she hasn't bought your Chrissie pressie yet. Damn!

"Wait, Tala?" Hilary looked up and saw the red head. He pulled the lollipop out of his mouth and glared. Kai said something in Russian, not looking up from whatever he was signing and Tala laughed and immediately relaxed. "Hey!" he greeted. And in went the lollipop.

"What's he doing here? Is it good or bad that he's here?" Hilary narrowed her eyes.

"It's fine Hil." Assured Max. "He's here with Kai. And it's not good that he's here."

Out of the corner of my eye I swear I saw Tala flinch. I definitely saw Kai look up and glance at Max, then glare.

"Its excellent!" and then Max went into a fit of excited giggles.

Hilary rolled her eyes and took a seat next to Kenny who had come in with her. Thankfully he was quiet about it.

"They're not exactly the same." Mused Tala as he put his finger on his chin, looking up. Looks like I'm not the only one who says their thoughts out loud. Tsk, tsk.

"The good mornings I mean. Hilary's goes higher on each syllable. Gooooooooooood mor-ning. Mine goes higher on the morning so its goooooooooooood morning. Interesting…"

We stared, Tyson even chewing slowly.

"What?" Tala asked innocently.

"Oh my god." Breathed Kai as he slapped a hand to his forehead. Couldn't blame him.

Tala began patting him on he head, like you would a dog, and closed his eyes in a smug fashion. "Don't worry Kai. You'll be as smart as me one day, and then you'll understand."

Kai pushed Tala's hand away and turned back to the papers he was signing. "Stupid pup." He muttered. Tala froze and glared at Kai. Oh how I would kill to have some popcorn at the moment!

"Pup?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"_Pup?"_

"Yep."

"_**Pup?!**_"

"Uh-huh."

Tala leaned in and grabbed Kai by the shoulders, forcing him to look up. "A pup? I'll have you know I am a full-fledged _wolf_."

"No. You are definitely a pup."

I started eating my imaginary popcorn faster. This was getting good!

Tala leaned in further. "how about we see how quickly Wolborg can rip your head off 'ey? Maybe that'll convince you."

Kai shrugged. "Mm, don't think so. Just face it you'll always be a little puppy. No howling, or growling, just _woof. __**Woof**_"

Tala narrowed his eyes, and then smirked. "Fine then, _canary."_

Faster, and faster. Great now I've got popcorn going everywhere.

Kai's jaw dropped. "You didn't."

"I di-id!" sung Tala as he laughed.

Kai pursed his lips and Tala leaned in closer so that their noses were touching.

"You'll always be a stupid little puppy." Growled Kai.

"And you'll always be my beautiful little canary." Tala smiled then stole a quick kiss from Kai.

Whoa! I flew back wards, falling off my chair and sending popcorn everywhere. I like to exaggerate. That took me by surprise. Hilary looked down at me and rolled her eyes.

"Come on! Lets go!" exclaimed Tala as he grabbed Kai by the wrist and began to pull him out of the room. He stopped when he passed me.

Tala squatted down next to me, Kai watching from behind him in mild amusement. Tala looked over the way I was sprawled out on the floor and then looked at where the chair was laying. "Hm… the chair has more grace than you." He mused. He looked down at me again. "You really like that floor don't you?" he grinned and punched me playfully before standing up again and walking out with Kai.

Grr…

* * *

We watched as Tala paced back and forth, thinking, something I have tried to do but never succeeded in. … I meant the pacing!

Finally he stopped and looked at us, tongue once again curling around his lollipop. How many of those did he go through I wonder?

"Ok, here's today's plan. You guys are horribly behind so we need to catch up yes?"

Uh… anyone have any idea what he's talking about? If he means maturity then I fully agree. If he means me impressing Kai and slowly getting him to fall for me then, hell yes. If he means the fact that Tyson and Diachi have yet to discover the words, thank you, please, knife, fork, spoon, chew, bite, manners and slowly, then, where has this Russian been all my life?! And I mean that in a friend, grateful, sorta way… ye-aaaaaaah….

"So today we will get the Christmas cards, Christmas tree and Christmas decorations out of the way."

Oh… yeah that's good too.

"So… where are the decos?"

* * *

I sighed irritably as I pulled out another box from under the stairs. Man these things were heavy. Just how many decorations did the Granger's own? Though this is Tyson and Gramps we're talking about here… considering them and what they're like, they don't have that many decorations.

Anyway, what's this one. _Ball thingies._ Ball thingies? Obviously labelled by a Tyson Granger. I didn't think that pigs could write. I opened the lid and looked inside. Oh, he means bulb bulbs. Well that's what I call them anyway. What are they called? Hm, I'll have to ask Kenny. But that means he would have to be social… yeah I don't think he'll know. He's more the numbers guy, not the social thing so I doubt he'll know what names people come up for them because he cant be bothered to get out there! Idiot.

I looked up and found myself at the entrance to the lounge room, the room of all my troubles, the lair of the… the… ok I don't know what lives in Tyson's lounge. Hmm… oh I know! Dust bunnies. But it was also the room of the Christmas tree! For some reason that doesn't sound right. Oh well.

"Diaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaachiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!"

Wow, I didn't know that Tyson could hold his breath for that long. Though he manages to finish 6 servings in one breath… but compared to how much he eats, that's not much breath holding going on. And then there's how much he yells… I came to a conclusion: I don't give a damn.

I stepped into the chaotic room and began walking over to where I had dumped the other boxes. Too busy looking at the bulb bulbs in the box I was carrying, I failed to notices the small, feral, red blur heading my way until the small, feral, red blur tripped in front of me. I tripped over the small, feral, red blur and crashed to the floor.

"Aw, fuck!" I watched as the box flew up in the air, and then came sailing back down. It landed with a smash. No, literally. And you know what, it was raining bulb bulbs! As the box had gone up, bulb bulbs had come out. And now they too were falling down all around me, smashing on contact with my lovely friend who has some serious sexual attractions towards me, the floor.

Tala looked over at me. "oh that's just _smashing_ darling." he commented in a posh English accent.

So now I lay in the mess of smashed bulb bulbs and a squashed box of smashed bulb bulbs. And who was going to get the blame? Diaaaaaaaachiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!! Haha, this was going to be fun.

I pulled myself up into a sitting position, making sure that I didn't cut my hands on any of the sharp shards. Miraculously, I came out unscathed, only my pride damaged. Again.

"Oh Dia-chi!" I sung ever so sweetly.

Either by instinct or the fact that I had a very scary look on my face, he automatically screamed, "he did it!" and pointed to Tyson, who took immediate offence and began to defend himself.

"Me?! It's your own fault! If you hadn't ruined the decoration, then I wouldn't have started chasing you!"

"So really, it comes back to you know matter who you blame." I said slowly as I turned and pointed at Diachi.

"He, I, but GYAAAH!! He didn't have to chase me! He could have just yelled at me! And it's his own fault for being so ugly!"

I turned back to Tyson. "Somehow it all comes back to you."

"What?! How can it be my fault for being ugly?!"

…

…

…

_Chirp. Chirp. And now add the little annoying cricket sound thing._

"Not that I'm ugly at all! I'm the most handsome beast of 'em all!" Tyson added hurriedly.

"Uh-huh! That just proves you're guilty! I was doing you a favour by ruining those decorations!"

"Wait, decora_tion__**s**_? I though it was just the one."

Diachi's face fell. "Uh… it is! Did I say decorations? I meant decora_tion_! Haha hahahahaha. Why aren't you _**laughing**_? Hahaha ha… ha. RUN!!" Diachi took off, Tyson hot on his heels.

* * *

"No!"

"Yes!"

"_No!_"

"Yes!"

"_**No!**_"

"Yes!"

"_**NO!**_"

"**Yes!** For Christs sake!" exclaimed Kai as he looked up from the Christmas lights he was sorting out. Tala pulled a face that read sorry and then turned back to the tree. I smiled sheepishly.

"You sound like frickin teenage girls. There's already one of them that insists on visiting every day, and that's bad enough." Continued Kai as he tugged at the lights; glaring at them and willing them to come out of the giant knot they had magically gotten themselves into.

…

…

With help from a neko jin of course… oops?

I turned around again, and separated the branches of the tree, trying to make it look… tree-ey… for lack of a better word.

"But did he really say that?" I asked.

"Yeah, and then he just walked off. But she found a short poem thingy that he had written on the back of the photo." Said Tala as he took a step back to assess what we were doing. "Rei… your side looks the exact same way it did when we pulled the tree from the box."

I deadpanned. "Thanks Tala, but what was the poem thingy? What'd it say?"

Tala stepped forward again and began helping me with my side. "Um… her eyes are watering, I said we're better off this way. Things change, its happening everyday."

"I can't decide if it's tragic, or sweet, or romantic, or what?" I mused as I stopped for a second to think about it.

"Its tragic."

I looked to Kai. "You think?" I had no idea he had even been listening.

"No. I don't know, but if it shuts you up then yes."

"I think it is tragic." Said Tala.

"Do you?"

"Yes I do really, I mean judging from what I know about where you lived in China, you should know what a tree looks like and how to make a fake one look like one. But that my friend, looks nothing like a tree."

Well I was talking about the story but we'll just go onto insulting my tree-ey-ing skills.

"It looks like Tyson fell into it, or walked past it. You know, he either squashed it or the tree shied away when he came near. Can't blame it really."

Kai and I just stared at him.

* * *

Finally, it was done. And we had discovered what had enraged Tyson so much. The Grangers had these decorations, that were little photo frames that showed the two sons at different ages, and Diachi had drawn faces on all the ones of Tyson. Tala had cracked up laughing when he saw them and even Kai had difficulty keeping his smile hidden, and then he commented on how it was a definite improvement to the original. Of course, then Tyson had retaliated and Kai had replied coolly, and then Tyson tried coming up with another comeback but the one he used made no sense, which Kai insulted him on that fact and then Tyson went off in a huff.

But right now, I don't frickin care because I. Am. Star-ar-ar-ar-ar-ving! And Hilary has cooked some cookies, which we are getting Diachi to try first. We would all like to keep out teeth intact and in our mouths, not stuck in some evil cookie with blood gushing out our mouths and onto the carpet where you step in it and then peeps get bloody footprints everywhere and guess who had to clean it up? ME! Like I said earlier, I like to exaggerate.

So the poor unaware Diachi took a bite. And chewed. And swallowed. And belched. And got yelled at for bad manners. And then snatched up another cookie. And then began stuffing his face. And we took that as the ok, though Hilary doesn't know we used him as a test subject.

Tyson walked back into the room when he smelt the cookies and he snatched one up, taking a hesitant bite.

"Mmph! Dese are weally good Hiwawy!" he exclaimed, crumbs falling out of his mouth.

"Thanks, Tala helped." Ah, now that explains EVERYTHING!

Tala leaned over to Kai and I and whispered, "Though she's the one who stuck them in the oven and said that she would watch them so the fact that they aren't rock hard really surprises me." Obviously he had heard about Hilary's cooking skills from Kai.

Kai rolled his eyes and I laughed.

"Damn woman and her damn cooking." Mumbled Kai as Hilary tried to get him to have another cookie. I don't think I've ever seen someone's eyelashes move so fast.

I took another cookie for myself and looked at the tree. It had taken a whooooooooole lotta effort to put it up. Between the broken bulb bulbs, drawn on decos, knotted lights and the fact that Diachi almost sent the tree up in flames twice, it didn't seem to be worth it. And then Max had come in and held out two boxes of 1000 candy canes each. What company packages 1000 candy canes in one box, I don't know. And who buys them? Well blonde American idiots like dear Maxie and Paris Hilton of course. Anyway Max had insisted that we put 2000 candy canes on the tree. When Kai tried to tell him we couldn't, Max began doing his watery eyes thing, so Kai had agreed to put some on. Though when Tala and I opened one of the boxes, we found quite a few of them missing.

So after all that, we shoved the others out and so Kai, Tala and I sorted it out. And then we decorated the rest of the house.

Tala stood and stretched. I raised an eyebrow and he winked. How come I've got a sneking suspicion that he knows?

"Hey Kai? Can I show you something?" he asked.

Kai looked away from the plate Hilary was holding out to him and looked at Tala questionly. The red head didn't explain, just grabbed him by the wrist and hauled him to his feet.

"I'll show you what I put up!" he exclaimed excitedly when he dragged the two of them to the lounge door way. Hanging above their heads were three separate pieces of mistletoe. Looks like Tala had taken advantage of the double doorway.

He positioned Kai so that he was standing under the first piece and the Tala leaned in and kissed Kai. He then pulled Kai under the next piece and kissed him again and then the third time for the third piece.

I felt the jealousy rise within me, and I struggled to keep it under control. I looked for an excuse for getting out of the room and when I saw the empty plate, I practically dived for it. I hurriedly explained that I was taking it to the kitchen. As I hurried past Kai and Tala, I saw Kai pull away and look at me curiously. He was about to follow me when Tala stopped him and said he would go. Damn, they looked like such a couple when they did that! And a cute one too!

I set the plate on the bench next to the sink and grabbed a glass from the cupboard, filling it with water and gulping it down.

"You like him, don't you?" Yeah, he knows.

I turned to face Tala and nodded slowly.

Tala laughed gently. "Cute."

I raised an eyebrow. Was it just me or did this guy seem to get weirder and weirder? I mean he was with Kai wasn't he, so wouldn't he be all like, oi back off! He's mine!

But Tala didn't seem like the guy to do that. Maybe he meant cute as in, well cute and he was acting all nice but then he would turn all mean and be like, yeah well you had better stay away! Hmm…

"I'm not with him Rei!" laughed Tala. Had that come out loud?

"Well it sure damn looks like it!" I protested.

Realisation dawned on Tala. "Oh. So that's why you think...? Oh. Nah, that's just us, mainly me, mucking around."

"Have you two ever been together?" I asked, beginning to feel pretty stupid. Ok, stupider than before.

"No! Course not! It'd be too weird."

I 'hmm'ed. I wasn't too sure. Tala didn't seem like one to lie, I know Kai hated lying and usually didn't, and the two of them were pretty similar in quite a few ways.

Tala sat down on a stool. "Now we've got higher priorities then don't we?"

"We do?"

"Yeah, we've got to get you two together!" I smiled. Though it had been what? Six hours? Tala and I had grown closer still. I never thought we'd get along that well. We always had but now even more so. He was trustworthy, loyal and easy to relate to. And that's part of everything I saw in Kai. Maybe that's why we hit it off so well.

"I can't believe you two just left me alone with _them_! And worst of all, _**her**_!" we turned to Kai who was leaning against the doorway. Oh crap, how much had he heard?

Tala was obviously wondering the same thing. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Just got here now. Your not getting slack are you?"

Tala puffed his chest out. "Never!" he looked between Kai and me. "Hey Rei, would you take a few steps back."

I raised an eyebrow but did so anyway. "A few more aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand stop!" Tala smiled. "There, perfect!"

What was he talking about? I mean I was only standing in the kitchen doorway, with Kai next to me and… mistletoe above our heads… oh no.

"How cute!" Commented Tala and then he turned scarily serious. "Now kiss."

* * *

**haha! ta-da! Tala arrives! hm, sorry that nothing much happened in this chappie... i've been asked to add more Kai-Drama and i would like to say, dnt worry, there'll be HEAPS more to come! mwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha cough cough water! note to self: make evil laugh shoooooooooooooorter.**

**bye!  
kavbj**


	5. kisses, nods, pics, smiles, Tala!

****

**_Between KIssing and Nodding, Pictures and Important Smiles, Tala Seems to Be in the Middle of it All._**

"Now kiss."

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! HAS HE COMPLETELY LOST IT?! I SWEAR I'M GON-na kiss him! I struggled to hold back my sigh as I felt Kai's soft lips press gently against my cheek. He pulled away and smirked at my flushed face.

He was about to walk away but Tala's voice stopped him.

"Uh, uh, uh! You know the rules! On the lips! No-ow!" that is one bossy redhead I thought as Kai stepped back next to me.

Wait, on the lips?! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! HAS HE COMPLETELY LOST IT?! I SWEAR I'M GON- ok this is where I was stopped mid-rant to go from killing Tala to wanting to kiss him cos I was so grateful. Why wasn't I stopped? Hello people, how do you expect me to keep up with things if you wont! Yeesh! They have got to stop confusing me!

"You done yet?" Asked Kai, hands on his hips. And I worry about how much of that came out. Behind him, I could see Tala pretending to try and push Kai towards me. It was quite funny actually, seeing he had aligned himself perfectly so it looked totally believable. Sorta, almost, kinda…

I put my hand over my mouth as I tried not to laugh at Tala, who was now pretending to use his back to press against Kai. I don't know how he was staying balanced but –

THUD!

Well that answers it. Turns out he had been using the stool he had been originally sitting on to balance himself and it had slipped away, causing Tala to go hurtling towards the floor. I cracked up.

Kai spun quickly and raised an eyebrow, a semi-smile crossing his features. Tala picked himself up, laughing sheepishly, his tongue curling around his lollipop.

"Alright, enough! Now kiss! _Pro_-perly!" he demanded. It was his turn to put his hands on his hips and look expectantly at Kai.

Kai faced me, sighed and smiled apologetically, as though he was apologising for what was about to happen and for Tala's behaviour.

What you apologising for babe? I aint complaining! Well that's what I felt like saying to him.

I closed my eyes, pretending this was a burden (riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.) and leaned in.

I grinned mentally as I felt Kai's bangs tickling my face, his breath blowing gently against my lips.

Oh god someone pinch me!

Then there was a thud and I fell forward, crashing into the doorway.

"Oops sorry dudes!" apologised Tyson. "But I need to get more of those cookies."

Kai glared at him for bumping into him and Tala looked absolutely murderous.

"No, no, no, NO!" he screamed.

"Uh oh." I heard Tyson whimper as Tala stalked over to Tyson and I.

Even Kai looked slightly surprised and somewhat concerned at his best friends sudden mood swing and outburst. But his expression soon turned malicious, his eyes glinting.

"Now kiss." We looked at him, shocked. "Wasn't that how you phrased it Tala?" Kai asked teasingly.

Oh god someone kill me! Kai was right in what he was saying.

Somehow Tala, Tyson and I were all under the mistletoe.

"U-um…" stuttered Tala but we could all see that there was no way Kai was letting us out of this one. "Well let's get this over and done with." Muttered Tala as he leaned down to give Tyson a _very _quick peck on the cheek. But Kai's voice stopped him.

"Uh, uh, uh. You know the rules. On the lips. No-ow." Kai smirked as he mimicked Tala's voice.

"Fine, fine!" exclaimed Tyson. How come he doesn't seem to have any problems with this?! Aw crap, he's enjoying this! He _wants_ to kiss us! Holy fuck!

Tyson turned to me first and puckered his lips and although he was doing it jokingly, I almost gagged right there and then.

I closed my eyes and waited, praying that Max would come blundering in and knock Tyson away. It wouldn't be so bad then. But my prayers weren't answered. God, you must really be laughing up there.

As soon as I felt Tyson's lips connect with mine I pulled away. "there we go! Done!" I whimpered and smiled nervously.

It was Tala's turn to kiss Tyson. Tyson closed his eyes again and puckered his lips, again. Bleh!

Tala glared at him, pulling his head away in disgust. Good thing Tyson's eyes were closed. The expression on Tala's face wasn't the nicest of all expressions.

Sighing irritably, Tala leaned down, kissed Tyson and then immediately pulled away again.

"you're done, now move!" snapped Tala, pushing Tyson out of the way with his elbow and turning to face me.

His expression changed totally. He smiled cheekily, his eyes softening up and then what I had seen him do so many times to Kai, he did to me. And I almost died right then and there. He is one hell of a kisser!

His lips were soft and tasted like whatever flavoured lollipop he had been eating, (He was holding it in his hand for now.) pressing gently against my own. Admittedly, I didn't want it to end but it did, and too soon.

"Well, now that that's over and done with," said Tala, winking at me and sticking the lollipop back in his mouth, his tongue immediately welcoming it back by curling around it. "There's still one person in this room who didn't get kissed by moi!"

He walked over to Kai and just stood in front of the crimson-eyed Russian, who in turn, stared back. Tala laughed and glomped Kai, pressing his lips against the smirking lips of Kai.

Kai wrapped an arm around Tala and stuck his foot out, the sudden glomping from Tala unbalancing him. Tala threw his arms around Kai's neck, burying his hands in Kai's hair. He pulled away and grinned wolfishly. "There we go! Problem fixed!" and he kissed Kai again.

Not together my arse! I pursed my lips angrily.

"Wow, they seem to do that a lot don't they? Do you think they're together?"

My anger faded away as I slapped a hand to my forehead. Tyson's stupidity still manages to amaze me.

* * *

"And then he's like now kiss and at first I wanted to kill him but then I wanted to kiss him cos I was so grateful cos Kai kissed me on the cheek and then he's like no, no, do it properly. On the lips. And I was so excited and then Tyson stuffed things up –"

"_Like usual. Dear, dear porky, how we shall miss you when you go."_

I laughed. "Not!"

Jesse's laughter rang through my cell and into my ear. I've always liked his laugh. But I like Kai's better. I love it when he laughs. Though it's not very often. "Anyway he stuffed things up and I ended up having to kiss him and so did Tala and then Tala and I had to kiss and then –"

"_Why did you three have to kiss?_"

"Oh, because of Tyson's stuff up somehow all three of us ended up under the mistletoe. And then Tala and I had to kiss and god it was good! I swear! I would so do it again… if I wasn't after Kai."

"_Wow he must be good for you to say that. But what was it like kissing Porky?"_

"Oh god, I like gagged before his face was even near mine. And then he puckered his lips and all this slobber ended up on them and –"

"_Ok ok! No details! Please I beg of you!" _Jesse laughed again.

"Right, sorry. And then Tala's like, 'there's still someone who hasn't kissed me yet' and then he walked over to Kai and kissed him, for what, the 6th hundred time today?! And then he pulled away, said something that I cant remember and kissed him again! And I'm like not together my arse! And after all that and all that's happened today, I didn't get my kiss because of"

"_Porky."_ Finished Jesse. "_So Tala, _the _Tala Ivanov, is with Kai, but he said he wasn't, it was a muck around thing, but now you're not so sure and you think they are cos of all the kissing. And hugging. And the way they speak to each other, even though half the time they speak in Russian and you cant understand a single word they're saying."_

I though for a second. "Yeah that sounds about right."

"_Rei…" _Jesse sighed. "_Ok, who starts most of it all?"_

"Tala."

"_And does Kai deepen the kisses, or respond, like I don't know, join in? Ok that's a weird way of putting it but I think you get my point."_

"No he doesn't… but he doesn't pull away either!"

"_And does Tala deepen the kiss? Or does he just stick to everything you've mentioned?"_

I sighed. "Everything I've mentioned." I replied grumpily. I hate it when he's right. And he's always right. Man I hate that.

"_Well there you go!"_

"But!"

"_Look, do you want me to come over tomorrow? I finish work early."_

I nodded.

"_Rei?"_

I nodded again.

"_Rei!"_

I nodded furiously, yes already!

"_Rei goddamn it! If your nodding I cant bloody see!"_

Oh, that explains so much. Hm. "I was… thinking." I don't want him thinking I'm dumb now do I?

"Rei Kon, you of all people do not think for that long, you of all people rarely think at all. You were nodding."

See, told you he was always right. And see, I told you it was annoying. "…Shut up… know it all."

I could imagine him rolling his eyes and twirling a strand of hair around one of fingers. Then he'd stop and cock his head to the side with a slight frown on his features. Then the frown would disappear and be replaced by a small smile. See, I know him well. "_Well I'll come over then. But is it all right if I bring Annie-Belle? We're supposed to be staying at _hers_ tomorrow and no way am I leaving Annie-Belle with _her_. Even if she does get along with _her_ a whole lot better than I do."_

"Yah its fine. Look I had better go. Thanks Jesse!"

"_See ya."_ There was screaming in the background and Jesse sighed. _"Annie-Belle says bye and lots of kisses and hugs."_ He said grudgingly.

I laughed. "Right back at her. Bye."

"_Yeah bye."_ I hung up and shook my head smiling. After telling Jesse about everything that had happened, my head suddenly felt scarily empty. You know what, I'm not gonna even ask if you straightaway thought I was talking bout my brain… which I possess by the way!

* * *

Da da da da da-da-da da da dada dadadada da-da da da

I watched as Kai's fingers danced up and down along the couch's armrest.

"You're still doing that." Kai's fingers stopped the second Tala made the comment.

Tala took a sip from his coffee and looked out of the window.

"Do you still play?" he asked.

"Hn."

"Everything?"

"Hn."

"Do the others know?"

"Hn."

Tala frowned. "well are you going to tell them? You should play something! On whatever you want!"

"Hn."

Tala looked at Kai and pouted. "Aw, please? For me?"

Kai semi-smiled. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately, now that Tala was here. "Hn."

Tala smiled and shook his head. "Fine, later." He stood and walked over to the door, kissing Kai on the cheek on the way. "I'm just going to go have a shower."

"Hn."

"Oh and Kai? Later, please tell me." And then he was gone.

I looked at Kai confused. Ok those two just had a whole conversation and all Kai said the whole time was hn. Still trying to figure out if that's humanly possible… I can't believe that Tala knows Kai so well that he knows what every single one of those hn's meant. I didn't, and I certainly didn't understand that conversation. I growled. That's why they didn't speak in Russian! I bet you anything they knew I wouldn't understand the conversation no matter what language it was in! Sneaky bastards.

"Why are you growling?" Kai asked quietly.

"Hm… what was that all about?"

"Hn."

"Yeah Kai, I aint super human like Tala, so I cant understand what every one of your hn's mean, ok?"

Kai looked at me and then out the window. "He's not super human, he's just… human."

Uh-huh. Right, that made sooooooooooo much sense. But obviously that was a touchy subject. Somehow. Actually both Tala and Kai had been acting pretty weird this morning.

Yes, this morning. This was now the second day that Tala would be staying.

\As stupid as they are, Tyson and Max managed to save me some how, Hiro too tired from work to help out, and god knows where Diachi was at the time. As soon as I found that out, I freaked. How was the Pig-On-Two-Legs and the Scary-Sugar-Addict supposed to help me! I thought I was doomed! And the fact that Hilary and Kenny had already gone home didn't help. But Tala knew that I liked Kai, so that would help the situation right? But he liked Kai. I think. Yeah those were the thoughts I had. But, you know what, why the heck am I giving all the credit to Tyson and Max?! It was Tala!

He was given the choice of the guest room, or the room that Kai and I were in. He had given me a side glance, smiled at Max and Tyson and then said, "if its possible to get a spare bed or futon into Kai and Rei's room, then that would be great but otherwise the guest room's more than great. I wouldn't want to intrude or be any trouble so how about I just go to the guest room?"

"No, no! We can get you in the same room as Kai and Rei, but it may get a bit squishy… hmm…"

"Tyson there's always the mattress under Kai's bed, we can just pull that out and set that up!"

"Oh yeah, you're right Max! Nice thinking dude!"

"I wouldn't want to be a hassle." Said Tala, looking a bit unsure and slightly lost.

Kai said something in Russian to reassure him. Tala said something back but Kai said something again and Tala broke out into a smile. He gave Kai a kiss on the cheek, whispered, "you're a genius Hun, you know that?" in Kai's ear and then said to Max and Tyson. "If that's not any trouble, what you just suggested sound great! But as long as it's fine with Rei."

"And Kai." Added Tyson as he and Max looked at Kai and I.

"Oh Kai doesn't have a choice, he's stuck with me. But I don't think Rei would appreciate me barging in as if I owned the place."

"Why not? I would do that."

"Uh right…" replied Tala, raising an eyebrow at Tyson. "Rei?"

Well great, I couldn't say no. Not that I wanted to cos then you'd think I was absolutely horrible. Eh, who am I kidding, we all know I wanted to say no. "yeah that's cool with me." But I couldn't.

Tala stared intently at me for a few seconds. "You know what, its late and everyone's tired so it'll be so much easier for everyone if I just sleep in the guest room. So sorry to confuse you all."

God, thank you Tala! And judging by that small smirk he sent in my direction, he was trying to help me get Kai. God this guy was confusing.

"No, we said we would set everything up for you so we will! Right Maxie?"

Maxie nodded. But Maxie wouldn't be able to nod when I was through with him. And Tyson, hm… lets just say he'll be going on an unexpected diet. Why the fuck did they have to open their mouths?! Well Max didn't but still.

Tala had tried to refuse but Max and Tyson had grabbed him by an arm each and dragged him in the direction of Kai's and mine room. Tala had looked really panicky as he had tried to pull back.

Kai had taken a step forward and barked something in Russian. Tala had turned and glared at Kai and hissed something back. Kai looked genuinely hurt by whatever Tala had said.

As if realising what he had said, Tala's eyes widened slightly and he quickly said something else.

Kai snarled at him and said something back, causing Tala to flinch. Kai had run a hand over his face, looking extremely weary. He said something; Tala said something back and they both laughed. Problem solved.

And no, Tyson's hallway is not long enough for all that to happen while Max and Tyson were dragging Tala along with them.

Tala had forcibly pulled the other two to a stop and they had been trying to get him moving again, it was quite comical actually.

When I woke up in the morning, I found both Kai and Tala gone. I quickly said a prayer, for some reason feeling that if I wanted the Lords help, then I had better catch up on all the praying I'd missed out on over the past few years.

Dear Lord,  
So far today, I'm doing alright.  
I have not gossiped, lost my temper, been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or self-indulgent.  
I have not whined, complained, cursed or eaten any chocolate and I have charged nothing on my credit card.  
But I will be getting out of bed in a minute, and I think that I will really need your help then.

I had then sat up and looked around, spotting something on Tala's pillow. I rolled out of bed grudgingly and walked over to Tala's temporary bed. I picked up the letter that was there and began reading it, smiling as I did so.

_Kitty! Good morning! Have a good night's sleep?_

_Right, well sorry about last night, your teammates are too damn stubborn for their own good. Anyway, I'm moving to the guest room tonight, I talked to Kai about it last night._

_Now we have to work on getting you with Kai, now don't we? Well as soon as you're ready, head to the kitchen and I'll be there waiting for you. It's time to have some fun._

_Oh, and the three photos, keep them, I've got plenty more._

_Kisses! God I sound like some teenage girl… bleh!_

_Tala_

_By the way I've decided on my codename, the – you know what, you'll just have to wait and find out!_

I put the letter down and picked up the three photos that were mentioned in the letter and smiled again. I pocketed the letters and walked out the door.

I had gone to the kitchen like Tala had told me in the letter but Kai had been there so Tala sent me this look that I was supposed to be able to understand but I didn't and now I'm sitting in the lounge room with Kai, who is going out in fifteen minutes, giving me time to talk to Tala. And about the same time Kai's getting back, Jesse and Annie-Belle should arrive! Perfect!

* * *

"Tala? Tala!" I walked from room to room trying to find the redhead. Where on gods green earth was he? You're a neko-jin Rei, try and sniff him out. But all I could smell was Tyson and Diachi, and trust me, they don't smell all that good.

I opened the door leading to the backyard and grinned. Why didn't I think of here in first place?

Because like Jesse so lovingly told me yesterday, I don't think.

Tala was flying on his stomach on the porch, chin resting on the edge of the first step down to the koi pond.

"hey!" I greeted, walking over to him.

He rolled over onto his back and smiled up at me, tongue curling around his lollipop.

"good, you found me." He stood up. "come on let's go."

He lead me to the guest room and opened his suitcase.

He ruffled through his belongings, crying out triumphantly when he found whatever it was he was looking for.

He faced me and showed me the brown leather covered book he had found.

I clapped slowly. "congratulations Tala, you can read!"

He glared at me. "don't worry Rei, you'll be able to do it too someday."

I pouted. Damn him, how'd he know.

That was a joke peoples!

"its not for reading, its for looking at." Explained Tala as he opened the book.

Oh it was an album. I sat down next to him on the bed and he held it between us.

"ok, these are some photos of Kai and the others. And hopefully the one photo I'm dieing to show you is still in here."

We flicked through the pages, laughing and talking about each picture.

Tala hesitated when it came to turning the next page. We were about half way through the album already.

"this may… scare you? A little."

He turned the page and I paled.

"Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god." I breathed, staring at the photos. Was it even humanly possible to be covered in that much blood?! Or that many scars?!

The photos were from the Abbey, from different times and of different members of the Blitzkrieg Boys but they were all… heart wrenching.

Tala traced a hand over the photos and turned the page. More photos. And he turned the page again, and it was the same.

"this is the last of these photos." Whispered Tala, once again tracing them with his hand. "memories are precious thing Rei, and they should be preserved however possible. To lose your memories of those you hold dear, and everything that made you who you are, is like losing half your soul, half your mind, half your heart. All your hope, all your dreams, all your beliefs. You build walls up around yourself, desperate to protect yourself. But as you let people in, those are worn away. Not by those people you've let in, but by your own hands. Scraping at them with your fingers until your skin is torn and they bleed with something new; trust." He smiled at me. "Quote by Kai Hiwatari." He tucked his hair behind his ear and I realised that his hair was actually down, not in the usual devil horns. And I've only been sitting with him for half an hour or something and I notice only now? I seriously worry about my brain sometimes… and Tyson's floor, which I've had the courtesy of bumping into three times already today. And I think the walls are trying to join in on the action as well.

Is it possible for inanimate objects to get hormonal?

"I don't know…?" Tala raised a questioning eyebrow then shook his head laughing. "And I thought Tyson and Diachi's stupidity amazed me."

I laughed too then stopped. Wait, what? Was that an insult?! Grr…

"Hey you paying attention?" asked Tala, waving a hand in front of my face.

Oops, must have zoned out. I nodded in reply to Tala's question.

I… zoned… out… I zoned out! I, Rei Kon, zoned out! That means I was deep in thought! That means I was thinking! Ha ha! I zoned out!

"Oh congratulations." Tala said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes.

How come the stuff I don't want to come out always comes out? Grr…

"Alright, the pictures, picture, I wanted to show is on the next page!" Tala turned the page and gave a disappointed sigh.

"What?" I saw nothing wrong with the page. I studied the pictures. I liked them. They were pictures of the Blitzkrieg Boys and Kai just living, at different ages. Like, being normal human beings.

Bryan trying to murder Ian.

Ian hanging from the fan. Bryan walking away smirking.

Spencer reading.

Spencer smiling.

Bryan smiling. I stopped. Bryan smiling?! Who would've thought? He should smile more often. It's a gorgeous smile.

Tala and his lollipop, tongue curling around it.

Tala laughing.

Tala poking a scowling Bryan on the nose… er…

Ian rolling around on the floor laughing, pointing at a flour covered Kai.

Ian glaring at a laughing Kai, who was still covered in flour. Ian was covered in egg… interesting. Kai looked good covered in flour.

A scowling Kai with a daisy chain sitting around his head. A laughing Tala next to him, a flower in his hair.

There was a picture of Kai and Tala when they were younger. Tala had Kai in a playful headlock and was winking, a smile on his face. Kai was glaring at Tala, though the blush across his face sort of lessened the effect.

Bryan, Kai and Tala had all fallen asleep together on the couch. Bryan curled up near the armrest, arm around Kai's shoulders. Kai was leaning against Bryan and Tala had his head in Kai's lap. Haha, cute.

Spencer attempting to keep Bryan and Ian away from each other.

Spencer attempting to hold Kai away from Ian.

Spencer holding Tala by his collar as he tried to get at Ian. Wow Ian seemed to be on the death list that time.

The last one was all of them on the hill that Kai spent a lot of his time on. Bryan had his head on Kai's chest, Tala's head was on Kai's stomach and the three lay there. Spencer was sitting against a tree and Ian was squatting down next to him. I smiled. That had to be one of my favourite pictures.

"I don't see anything wrong with anything." I looked up at Tala.

He closed the book and placed it next to him. "Have you ever seen Kai smile?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah."

Tala nodded slowly. "Have you ever seen _that_ smile?"

Eh, there's a specific smile? Is this some sort of joke, you know just to tease my poor brain? You know Kenny does it many times. With his stupid science talk and all and then the whole 'oh it's _easy_ Rei. And really quite simple to understand and comprehend.' My reply? 'Hey, that almost rhymes!' but hey, he's the unfashionable one, not me. I don't have pants back from 1782 that ride up to my ribs. Then a ugly just-off white shirt tucked in, high socks, feral brown shoes, the ugliest greenish tie this world has ever seen, big stupid dorky glasses and then stupid long hair that's always brushed so neatly with the glasses sitting perfectly and yet NO ONE CAN SEE MY EYES!!

I think that evens things up don't you?

Right, Tala's question. "There's a specific smile?"

Tala pulled at one of his bangs and his tongue wrapped around his lollipop. "Maybe you haven't seen it then, it's hard to forget… maybe I should ask Max or Tyson, they'd probably remember it… I could swear he did _that_ smile… was it at the end of the first worlds? Hmm…"

"…Come again?"

Tala sighed and shook his head then dived into his bag again. He pulled out another book, though this one was like ten times thinner than the other one.

He opened it and I saw more pictures. One on each page.

"Everyone of us, meaning the Blitzkrieg Boys, have like a special something. Sort of like a habit or trait or, I dunno, call it what you will. But we each have one."

He pointed to the first picture, which was of Spencer. "Spence has a sort of nod, with a smile and a strange look in his eye."

"You mean eyes?"

"No, eye. Its only one eye. His eyes are like _just _mismatched and it's only one of them that gets the look."

Weird. I looked at the picture. It looked like Spencer had been nodding, and there was the smile and sure enough, one eye had a strange look in it.

Next was Ian.

"Ian has a smile and a laugh." Yep, check. That kid definitely looks like he's laughing.

I stopped and stared at Bryan's picture. Sorry pictures. They were really gorgeous.

"There's two of Bry's cos his sorta goes in like two parts. He starts with just a small, soft smile and his eyes seem to hold all the emotions he's feeling and they shine and change to a sort of moonlight colour. Then he's smile gets wider until he's actually showing teeth, and his eyes go bright, then he gives out a short breathy laugh and shakes his head."

Small soft smile with pretty eyes? Check.

Laughing smile with bright eyes and what looks like the beginning of a shake of the head? Yep.

The next spot was blank. "Now Kai, Kai has a special smile. It's gorgeous, the few people who have seen it all agree on that. And if you receive the smile, you don't forget it."

"But what if you don't know to look out for the smile?" I can't have forgotten something truly gorgeous that has to do with Kai could I?

"You just know when you see it, that it's special somehow. All of these pictures," he swept his hand over them. "They were all taken without the others knowing, same for Kai's."

"There was a picture of Kai?"

Tala nodded. "It's creepy really, no matter how many times you get a photo of _that_ smile, the photo always seems to disappear. I had it glued down in here but now it's gone. Same with in the other book, except I had two pictures of it."

He closed the book and looked at me seriously.

"And that's our goal. To get Kai to give that smile to you. Not your whole team at once, but only you."

I blinked. Ok then... Tala seems to switch moods quickly. You know with everything that's happened today and yesterday, Tala seems to have been in the middle of it all. Do I wanna know what he's planning next? I dont think so.

* * *

**waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm back at skool! sorry it took a while to update, this chapter wasnt up as fast as i would hav like but we went to Perth and BUssleton for a week... and now i'm back at skool! waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!**

**i'm not too happy with the end of this chappie but i luv the start of it. let me know what ya think!**

**kavbj**

**_next time:_**

**dieting, dresses, ball room dancing, ice skating, bowling, surprise kisses and theme songs.**


	6. a dress! ICE SKATING!

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* * *

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ok this doesnt have everything that i promised in it but if it did, it'd be ridiculously long. hence the part 1. enjoy

!

* * *

**Chapter 6 - A _Dress?! ICE SKATING?! _(part 1)**

"I'll get it!"

Wonderful to know Diachi.

"Jesse! Annie Belle!" Diachi recognised them? I'm impressed. Judging by the size of his brain, unless he lived with the pair I didn't think he'd remember them.

I stood next to Diachi and waved at Jesse. I looked down at Annie Belle who was hiding behind her brother's legs.

I don't blame her. I'd be scared if I saw Diachi's face too. Though I seem to have become immune to it after living with him for who knows how long. Which is really bad. That means I've been living with him long enough to become immune to it. Scary…

"Are you going to let us in? Because there's this wonderful thing called winter that consists of snow and ice, both of which are cold and are currently freezing my ar-ar…" Jesse trailed off, eyes travelling down to his 5-year-old sister. He sighed and picked her up, placing her on his shoulders.

I stepped back to let them in.

"Stop!" screeched Annie Belle, causing Jesse to stop, trip and flail his arms about madly trying to regain his balance.

"What?!"

"You need to pick up Mr. Rei-Rei."

Yes Annie Belle was delighted when she got a stuffed cat for Christmas the previous year and she insisted on naming it Mr Rei-Rei. That was bad enough. But now I am reminded of that bitch that is supposedly my future wife. And yes I am talking about Mariah who has so graciously given me the pet name, Rei-Rei. Sickening isn't it? And you all feel sorry for me don't you? Yes? Come on, nod. Very good.

"Mr Rei-Rei? Oh _that _thing." Jesse picked up the cat and handed it to Annie Belle. The little girl clutched it tightly to her chest and began petting it as she looked nervously at Diachi, her bottom lip pushed out in a small scared pout

There was a small meow and Jesse and I looked down. Jesse sighed.

"Oh look, even the cat followed us here." He commented dryly.

I shook my head. "You've got to be popular somehow don't you?"

"At least the things I resort to are living, unlike you, who resorts to inanimate objects, namely the floor."

"Hey! The floor's the one with the sexual attraction towards me! And the walls are just trying to get in on the action!"

"What's secsual attracshon?" Annie Belle looked down at me innocently.

"Um…"

I turned to where I hoped Diachi would be, praying that _now_ he would butt into the conversation but he wasn't there.

Well this is great Rei, how do you explain something like that to a _5 year old?!_ Maybe I should do it the way Max learnt it when he was watching Cat in the Hat.

"When a mummy and a daddy love each other veeeeeeeeeeeeeeery much, they decide to…" it never went past that in the movie.

Jesse was looking at me absolutely horrified. Well shitcakes, I'm sorry but I didn't think she would ask! It's her fault!

Luckily the two people I love most in the world saved me.

"Hey Jesse, Annie Belle. Rei."

"Hey Rei I've got afternoon tea ready. Oh Kai babe, you're back!"

Whoa! Rewind and replay. Kai _babe?! _What is this _Tala_ person up to?

"Kai!" squealed Annie Belle. She twisted on Jesse's shoulders, almost toppling them both, so that she could see him. She beamed at him and shoved the stuffed cat at him.

"Mr Rei-Rei's here too!"

Kai semi-smiled and pet the toy gently on the head. "Hello Mr Rei-Rei."

Oh great, a 5 year old is having more luck with him than I am! And you know what's worse, so it the fucking stuffed toy!

Even the cat! Said creature was rubbing itself against Kai's left leg, its long black tail curling around Kai's ankle. The cat sat itself in front of Kai and pawed at him with his white-socked foot. Kai scratched him behind the ear and the cat leaned into the touch.

Jesse shook his hand, doing the weird the thing that those two always do when they greet each other.

Tala threw himself at Kai and kissed the younger Russian. He wrapped his arms protectively around Kai's waist from behind and his blue eyes glared at Jesse, cold mask up.

And the only person left to greet Kai was me. I smiled and went to say something, taking a step forward but I tripped over the cat and ended up face floor on the ground.

Tala stared at me. "Ok lets eat." They headed for the kitchen and I groaned as the cat walked past me smugly.

When I entered the kitchen, I was immediately greeted by the sweet sounds of Diachi and Tyson arguing.

I took a seat next to Jesse, who still had Annie Belle perched on his shoulders.

"I told you, you have problems with inanimate objects." He muttered.

Yeah, yeah. At least Annie Belle hasn't remembered the whole sexual attraction thing.

"Rei?"

I cringed. Never mind. "Yes Annie Belle?"

"What do the mummy and the daddy do?"

"Wh-what do you mean?" please forget. Please forget.

"When a mummy and a daddy love each other veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery much, they decide to…" she quoted it perfectly. Damn her.

Everyone's eyes were on me, even Hiro's. And he had just walked into the room!

"You know." she prompted. "What's secsual attracshon?"

Ok now the room is eerily silent.

"Um…"

Think Rei, think! Ok we all know that's not going to happen.

I could always… tell her the end…

"It's where… your mummy and daddy love each other very much and they decide to call the crane. And then the crane looks at all the baby girls and boys and chooses the perfect one to give to your mummy and daddy."

Annie Belle's lips trembled, her purple eyes watering. Oh crap, what'd you do this time Almighty and Wondrous Rei?

"But mummy said I came from her tummy… not from a big monster that builders use for building."

Oh. I laughed. "No Annie Belle, this crane is a bird."

"But I came from mummy's tummy! Not from a birdie!" cried Annie Belle.

Um…

"Annie Belle just shut up and stop pestering Rei." Sighed Jesse, taking a sip from his tea.

"No!" screeched Annie Belle. She hit Jesse on the head and clutched her stuffed toy to her chest. "Mummy and daddy said I came from mummy's tummy!"

"The crane gives you to your mummy by putting you in her tummy."

Kai's voice was so quiet I barely caught it. Or maybe that was because of Annie Belle's stubborn wails?

I knew that Annie Belle would listen to and believe Kai.

"Really?" she asked curiously, at normal volume. I looked sympathetically at Jesse, who had pressed his hands to his ringing ears. Why oh why did the God give girls the power of speech?! I mean have you heard them _scream?!_

Tala nodded and wrapped his arms around Kai's waist. "Really."

Kai twisted his head to look up at Tala and then looked back at Annie Belle. He said something in Russian.

Tala opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again, a light frown lining his features. His grip on Kai loosened and his grip slid off altogether, his arms falling by his sides.

He glared at the floor. Oh yeah! Go Tala! Tell that floor that I am single but I'm taken! Then he crossed his arms and looked up, blue eyes fierce. He broke out into a grin, his tongue curling around his lollipop.

"Well if you say so!" Tala's voice was strained and Kai nodded at him.

You know, chocolate sounds really good right now. And there's some sitting on that plate there.

I leaned over Jesse and stretched for the plate. But then cruel fate had to have her fun and Tyson moved the plate. I growled and leaned further. Annie Belle's foot was dangling just above my head too. Almost… there… damn! He moved the plate again! So I lunged for it. And that sent me over Jesse's lap and straight onto the floor.

I rose from a crumpled heap to the sound of Jesse laughing and I propped myself up on one elbow.

"Hey there Bob, how ya doing?" I had so nicely named the floor Bob seeing as I seem to get along with it so well. Hey look chocolate! After all that, there had been a piece on the floor.

"Oh thanks Bob, have you been saving this all for me?" I didn't wait for an answer. I grabbed the chocolate and stood triumphantly. I took a bite. A bit of dust but I cant complain!

"What do you think you are doing young mister?"

I turned to Tala. "…Eating?"

He gasped. "And just what do you think you are eating?"

"…Food?" off the ground but food none the less.

"How dare you eat food!"

"Eh?!"

"You know its bad for your diet!"

Jesse burst out laughing, the evil trio, Max, Tyson, and Diachi, joining in.

Kai turned to look at the red head, his eyebrow raised. "Why are you putting my team mate on a _diet?_"

I asked a similar thing, just more politely. "What the fudge? (I was thinking of my dusty chocolate) why the fudge am I on a fudge-ing...-ing-ing-ing diet!" so the word fudging wasn't that successful.

"Because," he pulled out a picture. "If you don't lose some weight, you and me both know you're never going to get into this dress."

Dress?! He handed me the picture and Jesse and I looked at it.

Jesse started laughing again, so hard that he looked like he was about to fall off the chair.

Kai leaned over the bench and plucked Annie Belle from Jesse's shoulders just as Jesse fell off his chair. Oh look, he met Bob! Now Bob has a new friend. Though Jesse didn't seem to really notice.

My whole team were in fits. Hiro was leaning against the doorframe. Tala was sitting on the bench swinging his legs with an amused smile plastered on his face. And Kai was having difficulty keeping a straight face as he motioned for me to show him the picture. He looked at it and started laughing.

Annie Belle looked confused.

"This is what Tala wants Rei to wear." Explained Kai through his laughing.

"Oh." And then Annie Belle began to laugh.

I looked down when I felt something brush against my leg. Oh look, it's the cat. I swear he's laughing at me!

"Wait, I've got the dress upstairs!" Tala ran up the stairs and into the guest room. He came back clutching a pink horrid _thing. _He held it up so I could see and set the rest of the room off again.

"Come on Rei! You know you want to." Tala waved the dress with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows.

"Hell no!" no way is he getting me in that dress!

* * *

"I don't know how the hell you got me into this dress."

Tala smiled at me. "I've already told you – "

"Yeah, yeah." I waved him off and continued to sulk.

"At least you don't have to wear it until tonight." Tala shrugged and walked out the room.

Yes because tonight we're going to ballroom dancing lessons and you don't want Kai having an actual female as a partner now do you Rei? No cause it'd probably be _Hilary_ who gets paired with him. Or so Tala so kindly told me.

But before all that, we're going ice skating and bowling! And then after everything, Kai has to go to work. Yeesh. But right now, I need to get this dress off!

* * *

"Jesseeeeeeeeeee!" whined Annie Belle. "Can we go now?" she blinked up at her older brother innocently and I resisted the urge to go 'awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!'

Jesse scowled, seeing through the innocent mask. "Oh stop whining! We'll leave soon! Go ask Hiro or Gramps to set up a movie for you." He snapped rather harshly.

Annie Belle pouted before nodding slowly and running off.

"Helloooooooooooo!" the high-pitched girly voice rang through the corridor and I paled. Oh no. Hilary. Annie Belle! I have to get her somewhere safe!

I dived into the room next to me as I heard Hilary's footsteps coming closer.

Jesse shot me a confused glance then smiled at Hilary.

Sneaking out of the room and around the pair, Jesse making sure that Hilary's back was to me, I sprinted for the lounge.

I raced in and scooped up Annie Belle, only stopping long enough to answer Tala's question with the required answer. "Hilary."

He paled and ushered us out of the room, quickly flicking the channel on the telly to a Russian news channel and plopping down onto the couch just as Hilary came in and I went out.

I ran for the stairs, passing a bewildered Kai and trying to ignore Annie Belle's high-pitched giggles in my ear.

Where to go? Um… Kai's and my room!

I was in front of the door before you could say fantabulously monsterfabuleriffic!

Pushing the door open, I dumped Annie Belle on the bed, which she didn't mind one bit judging by the excited squeals, then ran for the door and closed it.

I leaned against it with a sigh and finally looked at Annie Belle.

She was dressed in pink, white and grey, with a little beanie. Her long platinum blonde hair was in two plaits, courtesy of Tala, with little white ribbons. Around her neck were pink doggy earmuffs and she had grey ugg boots on. She looked terribly adorable. And that was the problem. If Hilary saw her… I shuddered at the thought.

I pressed my ear to the door and listened intently. "Stay here!" I hissed at Annie Belle. I opened the door carefully and slipped out of the room, shutting the door behind me.

I walked down the stairs casually and entered the lounge room.

I winked at Tala and Jesse, letting them know the mission had been a success. I made my way over to Kai proudly and plopped down next to him.

He raised a questioning eyebrow and I smiled smugly. Oh yeah, let him know that I know something that he doesn't know because I haven't told him what I know and that something is something that I know and he doesn't know. Isn't it great? Of course it is.

"I just need to get something from upstairs." Explained Hilary, excusing herself from the room.

As soon as she was gone, Jesse, Tala and I let out a relieved sigh.

"That… was _too_ close." Breathed Tala as he slumped against Kai.

Kai looked down at him, demanding an answer. His eyes travelled to Jesse and finally me. He smirked. Oh no. Not me. Don't choose me!

"Rei…" he started thoughtfully.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! Jesse and Tala shot me sympathetic looks.

"Y-yeah Kai?" ok play it cool….

He tilted his head to the side and pushed his bottom lip out ever so slightly. He looked like a young child that you just wanted to hug. He blinked his large crimson eyes at me. Oh yeah, play innocent all you want! It aint gonna work!

Oh who am I kidding! This is Kai Hiwatari. He could simply blink and I would do anything he asks.

Kai smirked sexily, knowing very well that he had me under his control. He has to be the world's best hypnotist. And he doesn't even have to go 'watch this watch. Good now you re getting very sleepy. Very sleepy. When I count to three you shall fall asleep. Good. Now when I click my fingers, you shall think you are a chicken. A hungry chicken. A hungry angry chicken. A hungry angry female chicken. A hungry angry female hormonal chicken. A hungry angry female hormonal chicken who has been pmsing and stuck on her time of the month for the past six years with no end in sight.' Do chickens even pms? Meh. And does this chicken remind you of anyone? No? Let me help you. Cough-Hilary!-cough.

"Rei what is going on? Can you tell me? Please?"

Well damn I cant say no. Like I could say no even if I wanted to. Not to that face. Not to Kai.

"Have you seen Annie Belle?" I asked.

He shook his head slowly and cutely might I add. "Not since Tals plaited her hair."

Ah, so he hasn't seen her in her ice-skating outfit.

"Well she looks terribly cute and –"

I didn't even have to finish. Kai had held up his hand. "Say no more. I get where this is going."

Good. He understands. God he's smart. There was a loud scream and I perked up.

"What was that?" I asked.

That was soon answered as Hilary ran down the stairs and into the room.

"No no no!" she screeched. See what I mean about the whole 'why did God give women the power of speech' thing?

"Why the hell is Mariah staying here? And why wasn't I informed on this!"

Mariah's staying here? Oh god, kill me now. Like right now. No hang on, right about…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

……………………………………….. Now.

Yeah Lord? You missed your cue.

"Why do you think Mariah's staying here?" asked Tala. He stretched himself across Kai and yawned, showing his purple lollipop and purple tongue.

"Because………………………" what is she pausing for dramatic effect or something. How lame! You'll never catch me doing that……………………… ever.

"Oh spit it out!" sighed Tala rolling his blue eyes.

"Because of _this!_"

Gasp! Dun-dun-dun! It's –

"Oh, yeah that's mine." The pink dress. Ok please don't tell me I didn't just say that _I_ owned the dress?

"Yours?" Hilary brought the arm holding the dress down and frowned. "Why do you have Mariah's pink dress?"

"Its not Mariah's dress. Its mine." I did it again!

"What? Did she give it to you as a gift or something?" Hilary crinkled her nose.

"No Tala."

"Tala received the dress from Mariah?"

"No. Well actually, I don't know. What I'm trying to say is that the dress is mine as a gift from Tala for tonight."

"What's tonight?" oh so she doesn't know. Ok now I need to think on my feet so she doesn't find out that we're going ballroom dancing and that way we wont be stuck with her tagging along. Hmmm…. Well actually I need to think on my arse seeing as I'm sitting but anyway.

There was giggling from behind Hilary and a small voice replied. "Why, we're going ice-skating, then bowling and then ballroom dancing lessons."

Hilary turned around and her eyes went all starry like. Uh, crud.

"Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!" Hilary dropped the dress, forgetting all about it, and picked Annie Belle up.

"No!" I heard Jesse groan. I turned to him and watched on amused as he let himself fall so that he was lying on the couch, his hands pulling at the skin underneath his eyes as he dragged his hands down his cheeks. Poor guy I really feel for him. My eyes travelled downwards. Oh hey Bob! I waved then looked back at the conference between Hilary and Annie Belle.

Oh… my…. God. I seem to be quite a holy man today 'ey? Continuing onwards. Oh… my…. God. Annie Belle is still a_live!!_ Thank the Lord! Hilary hasn't hugged her to death. Or pinched her to death. That's her grandmother's favourite evil torturing tactic. Pinching your cheeks. Trust me, I know. I've met the woman.

I shuddered.

Kai leaned over so his lips were next to my ear and I could feel his breath on my neck. "Thinking of her grandmother?" he asked.

I nodded. "God yeah. Damn that woman to hell."

I could sense Kai smirk as he pulled away and continued running his fingers through Tala's hair. Hey! When did he start doing that?

Grrrr… 4 billion and 92 to Tala… none to Rei.

* * *

Jesse had fallen asleep with his head on my shoulder. With Kai's help, we shifted him so his head was on my lap seeing as we could see all the muscles in his neck straining seeing as he's taller then me so for him to put his head on my shoulder would kill.

_Anyway!_ We pulled up to the ice skating rink and I sighed.

I did not want to get out of this car.

I did not want to wake Jesse.

I did not want to have to face a hyper evil trio.

I did not want to have to face a hyper Annie Bell, courtesy of the evil trio.

I did not want to have to leave the peaceful quiet that was me, Jesse, Kai, Tala and Kenny.

I did not want to freeze my arse off.

I did not want to soak my pants through to my arse.

I did not want to land on and therefore bruise my arse.

I wanted to protect my arse, my precious tooshie.

And therefore I did NOT! Want to go. Ice-skating.

I sighed loudly and poked Jesse in the cheek continuously until he woke up groggily. Working the late night Christmas sale shift and then having to look after your little sister and only getting a total of half an hour of sleep can do that to a person.

He pulled himself out of the car and stretched. He stood there blocking the door personally before I finally kicked him forward and out of my way.

I went to step out proudly with my head held high as though I knew what I was doing but my foot caught on the car seat and I fell so that I was half in the car and half out the car. Greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. Three cheers for the idiot. And for once that is me.

Does Bob have a cousin maybe? Bobalina? Because I haven't been here for even five seconds and I already find myself face to face with the pavement.

I sighed again and dragged the other half of my body out of the car. I rubbed my sore cheek and pouted.

"There, there kitty." Sang Tala as he petted my hair.

I pursed my lips and mock-glared at him. I am not some cat!

The bright glary lights, the damn cold wet atmosphere and the sound of screaming and laughing greeted me. I huffed. I was not a happy kitty. Oh great, Tala's catching on.

Who the hell had the idea of coming here? Oh yeah me.

Nice. Joy. This. Will. Be. Fun. Why. Am. I. Thinking. Like. This?

"I. Don't. Know." Replied Tala, grinning widely.

I sighed and sat down on the bench, only to find it damp.

"I was going to advise we place our things up so that it doesn't get wet, but I think you figured that out yourself Rei." Kai commented dryly as he stared at my annoyed expression. Damn cold weather. I come from a village in China. Where it is usually warm. And right now it is not. Ugh!

* * *

'And here he comes! Rei Kon! World's best ice skater person thingy! He gets ready! He steps onto the ice! Oh no! He slips, he flails and… he catches himself! The crowd goes wild! He prepares to start moving. He moves his foot forward aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand…………… finds himself flat on his face! 10 out of 10! And the judges might even add some bonus points to him for meeting Bobbyana! Bob's cousin twice removed!'

"Rei? Rei-eiiiiiiiiiiii! Hello? Come on, let's start. Jesse and Annie Belle and Kai and Tala and Hiro and Hilary are already on the ice! Lets go, lets go, let's go!"

I sighed and nodded at Max.

That earlier is what it's going to be like when I get to the ice rink. Oh god damn it. God damn it aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall!

* * *

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

I most likely looked like some headless chicken that's had its wings chopped off. I grabbed at the railing, missing it by like an inch and falling flat on my face.

Great.

I tried to pick myself up and after 6 failed attempts, managed to.

Leaning against the banister and clinging to the railing like a lifeline, I watched the rest of my friends.

Max and Tyson, who were fairly good, were helping Diachi along, laughing and joking. Every time they passed the seats, they tried to convince Kenny, who was taping everything with Dizzi, to join them on the ice but so far, no luck.

Jesse was skating backwards, holding Annie Belle's little hands and helping her as she got used to being on the ice. She seemed to be picking it up quite naturally. Her little skates were soooooooooooo cute. Hilary was skating next to the pair, talking and laughing with Jesse and gushing over Annie Belle whenever the child fell and Jesse failed to catch her.

Annie Belle would giggle, then using Jesse's clothing or hand, pull herself back up and start again.

Hiro had gone to get hot chocolates after a while and had yet to return.

Tala and Kai… well they were a totally different story.

I yelped as a sudden gush of wind brushed past me. And that would be them.

Coming from Russia had its advantages.

They weren't wrapped up from head to toe.

They were good at ice-skating.

They could speak privately.

I washed amazed as they completed lap after lap, talking with each other and whizzing in between skaters at amazing speeds. They were soooooooooooo fast, and soooooooooooooooo good and even had their own little jumps and twirls and stuff to throw in every now and then.

Completing another lap, they stopped next to me. I had yet to take more than two steps away from the entrance onto the ice.

"Come on Kitty. It's fun. Trust yourself. It's like roller blading!" Tala urged.

I stared at him through half lidded eyes and pursed my lips. "I. Don't. Roller blade." I ground out. Yes I was annoyed. Annoyed that I was stuck where I was. And I don't just mean the position I had been in for the past 20 minutes.

I mean the place where I was currently freezing my fucking arse off and falling over on the fucking ice! Yeah, that place! Cold weather makes me swear. I crossed my arms and huffed.

My eyes travelled over Tala's excited face, trying to ignore the slight disappointment that I wasn't having fun that was showing through clearly. He can make me feel so guilty so easily.

So I turned my gaze to Kai. BIG mistake!

Kai stood slightly behind Tala, arms behind his back and head cocked ever so slightly to the side. The small smile of content was now gone and in its place was a small frown of disappointment. His eyes, which had been calm and filled with content and joy, were now bright with more disappointment and… more disappointment.

If Tala could make be feel guilty then you have no idea how guilty Kai made me feel.

I sighed. "Fine. Show me how to skate."

Tala's face lit up immediately and Kai's expression switched back to its previous one.

"I'll go help Diachi, and Kai? You can help Rei ok?" asked Tala as he began skating backwards and in the general direction of the evil trio.

"Da." Kai replied quietly. He turned to me and a smirk lined his lips. He placed his hands over mine and pulled them from the railing.

"Try and balance." He ordered. He pulled his hands away from mine and took a few steps back.

I took a breath and stood straight. Ok don't look at your feet. Don't look at your feet. Don't look at – oh niiice Rei. Do exactly what you're telling yourself not to do. Tsk, tsk. I faltered for a second before catching my balance again.

"Good." Murmured Kai. He held his hands out to me, silently telling me to go to him.

And the comedy begins. One step and AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!

AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! Oh thank god for this sturdy object.

"Are you ok? Don't worry, I got you."

This object that talks? I looked up. "Oh it's you Kai!" well duh.

"Who'd you think it was?" asked Kai, a sceptical eyebrow raised.

"A sturdy object that could talk." I replied happily. Ok maybe that wasn't the best answer judging by the way that Kai is looking at me weirdly.

"And I think that answer is weird because…? The answer did come from the guy who asked if inanimate objects could get hormonal." Kai muttered to himself as he shifted his hands so that he could hold mine more easily.

Well you're making a great impression on him aren't you Rei? Yeesh.

"Come on, let's go." Said Kai. He twisted us so we were facing the right way and began skating backwards pulling me along with him.

"Just… let your feet do what they want I guess. They should sort of figure out what they're supposed to be doing by themselves I guess." Explained Kai. Catching my eye, he shrugged. "Or you can try doing what my feet are doing, but move forward."

I frowned, letting him know I wasn't getting what he was trying to say.

He sighed. "Sorry, I haven't had to teach anyone in… well ages. Let's try this."

We pulled to a halt and Kai released my hands. I whimpered and flailed around, annoyed at the loss of support.

I heard a chuckle from my right and breathed a sigh of relief when I felt Kai's hand in mine.

"It's ok, I'm here."

We started moving again. I followed Kai's foot movements and tried to copy. We went round, slowly, but I got so excited when I completed my first lap that when I went to cheer, I fell over and ended up pulling Kai down with me.

"Um… oops?" I smiled up at Kai's face sheepishly, his nose inches from my.

He chuckled softly and shook his head. He stood and helped me up.

"Come on, let's go around again." He held my hand and we began again.

* * *

We got through five laps, slowly getting faster and faster.

"Well shoot the cat. You've got it." Kai semi-smiled at me.

I stared at him through half-moon eyes. "Could you select a different phrase next time." I requested dryly.

He shook his head, smirking. "Right, right. Sorry."

I smiled and gave his hand a squeeze signifying I wanted to go faster.

Kai's smirk grew wider and he sped up, pulling me with him. My feet quickly got used to the pace and I pulled up so that I was level with Kai.

"Well, what would you rather me shoot that would suit your preferences?" asked Kai.

Hmm… good question. Tyson? Diachi? Idiot? No not idiot, I can be one of those every now and then… Hilary? _Mariah!_ That's a good one.

I told Kai my ideas and he chuckled.

"I don't think I'd live very long if I used any of those." Was his response.

True, very true. And I need him alive long enough for me to tell him abut my undying love for him. Che. Riiiight. I rolled my eyes. Kai however thought I was rolling my eyes at his response.

"What? Do you want me dead? I didn't think I was hated _that_ much by my team…" he raised an eyebrow, crimson eyes dancing with mischief.

"No, no!" I disagreed hurriedly. "I- don't worry. Too hard to explain. What about shoot the dog?"

Kai thought about it.

"… What would you do to me… if I kept saying 'shoot the cat'?" he asked.

"I'd get annoyed I guess."

"That all?"

I shrugged. "Yeah."

"Hmm…"

What's he thinking?

"Well… I cant say shoot the cat, you don't like that, but I definitely cant say shoot the dog." Said Kai.

"And why not?" I hate dogs. I don't see why he cant say shoot the dog. I'd say it every second of the day. Ok maybe not every second. I'd always be like 'shoot- shoot- shoot-' they'd think I was a broken record. And it can't be every minute of the day as I wouldn't be able to say much more. Oh well, I'll figure it out… eventually. Maybe in the next millennium… yeah that sounds good.

"Because you may have failed to notice that my best friend's bit beast is a wolf, you know, a canine?"

"Oh yeah… so?"

Kai looked at me curiously. "You worry me. _So_ he wouldn't exactly be happy is I said shoot the dog now would he? Tala's unpredictable, so unlike you, he may get more than just annoyed. And I'd like to live to see past 25."

"Oh… ok."

Suddenly, Kai sped up, dragging me behind him. I let myself relax and began to enjoy the fast speeds until Kai pulled his arm forward, and therefore, throwing me forward. And he let go!

I screamed as I was sent skidding along. Was I going to fall or stop when I hit the banister? Hmm, lets see shall we?

But, luckily, out of nowhere, my favourite redhead appeared. He grabbed my hand and spun us around before pulling us to a halt and pulling me into his chest.

"Hey kitty, having fun?"

* * *

Kai, Tala and I kept skating, hand in hand, and soon Jesse joined us.

"Annie Belle wanted to try by herself and when we tried to stay near her she shrieked at us." He shrugged. He was skating in front of us, using Kai and Tala's instructions to avoid running into other people.

* * *

Tala separated from us to let a group of people pass. As this huge gorilla dude passed me, he barged right into me, shoving me to the ice.

"Hey watch it!" snapped Kai and Tala.

The gorilla turned to face us. "What you gonna do about it?" he jeered. His face slowly fell as he came face to face with an Ivanov and Hiwatari glare, as well as a Manderiaga glare. Yeah, Jesse was Spanish… and though his glare wasn't half as scary as the Ivanov and Hiwatari combo (for only 9.95…. haha… continuing on…) the guy still got the point.

"Sorry dude." The guy apologised to me.

I smiled back. "Nah don't worry about it."

Jesse muttered "bastard" under his breath as he helped me up.

"Hey… aren't you guys the Bladebreakers… and you're the captain of the Blitzkrieg Boys right… and you're the guy who works at that shop that sells all that Levi stuff, aren't you."

Tala, Kai and I nodded, while Jesse raised both eyebrows.

"You recognise me? What, are you some kind of sex-deprived rapist/stalker or something?" he asked.

The guy held his hands up. "No, no! That's just gross. I've got a 15 yr old younger sister."

"Oh." Was the reply from all four of us. That clears things up.

"Yeah, 'oh.'"

"…Hey… what's your little sisters name?"

"Elise, why?"

"Tell her to introduce herself to me the next time she's at the store and I'm on duty, 'k?"

"Yeah sure, see ya!"

The guy left and I turned to face Jesse. "You defend me, you glare at him, you call him a bastard then you ask for his sister name? Why don't you ask for the phone number as well next time?!" I threw my hands up. He hated the guy then he's trying to hook up a date with the guy's sister.

"Sorry," said Jesse. "But he looked familiar, and I think I've seen the girl around the store quite a few times… and she aint bad looking. She's sweet and funny too."

"Aww, someone's got a crush!" jeered Tala as he poked the blushing Jesse in the side. We laughed.

* * *

We pulled to a halt when there was a horribly loud and terrified scream that bounced off the walls and caused pretty much everybody to quiet down slightly and look in the direction of where the scream, now followed by more screams and sobbing, was coming from.

Jesse seemed to easily recognise the scream as his head whipped to the left and an alarmed cry of, "Annie Belle?!" escaped his lips.

We looked as well, and sure enough the screams were coming from the little girl.

She was on her hands and knees on the ice, screaming and sobbing, her little face petrified, and her chin covered in blood, as well as her fingers.

Jesse skidded to a halt next to Annie Belle and squatted down next to her.

"Hey, hey. It's ok." He murmured, stroking her hair.

Seeing the guy standing next to them, Jesse stood and was immediately on guard.

"We're going over to help, ok?" asked Tala. He and Kai were skating over to Jesse before I even got the chance to answer.

About the same time Tala and Kai reached Jesse and Annie Belle, the evil trio reached me.

"Should we go over too?" asked Tyson.

"Yeah, let's." confirmed Max as he took my hand. We skated over, but stayed distance enough away to not be in the way.

"What the hell did you do to her?!" yelled Jesse.

The guy backed away slightly. "Whoa! Dude, chill. I was only trying to help the little miss out, dude. I didn't touch 'er."

"Fuckin hell, you didn't touch her! Fuck! Who th-"

"Jesse!" barked Kai.

Jesse glared down at Kai, who was squatting next to Tala and Annie Belle.

Sending one last glare at the man, Jesse scooped Annie Belle into his arms and held her protectively to his chest.

Tala and Kai skated forward, clearing a path for Jesse so that he could get Annie Belle off the ice and cleaned up.

Tyson, Max and Diachi went to follow.

"He-hem." I cleared my throat. They looked at me. "A little help?"

"Oh right, sorry dude."

Max and Tyson each took one of my hands and we skated off.

* * *

"Jesse! Jesse!" Annie Belle kept calling for her brother who was currently getting a cloth from the staff member who had come to help. The shock seemed to have worn off slightly as she had stopped screaming, but she was fighting against another set of tears from the pain.

"Shh, shh. I'm here Annie Belle. Jesse'll be back in a sec ok?" explained Tala as he crouched down next to the girl. He smiled at her and she gave a shaky smile back.

Tala's eyes travelled to the girl's chin and then her fingers, and his eyes grew hazy.

He sat back with a groan and held a hand to his head.

Kai was at his side in a flash. "You ok?"

"Y-yeah… just feel like shit that's all… nothing unusual…" Tala gave a breathy laugh and his face paled.

"Oi Rei, can you come here?" asked Kai.

I walked over unsteadily on my skates and stood in front of Kai.

"Can you help Tala over to that bench? He's feeling nauseous that's all."

I nodded and helped Tala stand. We sat down on the bench and Tala rested his head on my shoulder.

"You alright?" I asked. I began running my fingers through his hair.

"Yeah, just let me sleep for a bit ok?"

"Yeah sure." I felt totally confused but that was nothing new.

* * *

Annie Belle was sitting in Jesse's lap, her fingers (which she had cut on her skates) wrapped up in fluoro pink bandages.

She sniffled again and went to go touch her stitches in her chin (which she had hit on the ice when she fell) but Jesse batted her hand away.

"_Stop_ touching _it!_" stressed Jesse. He groaned and let his head fall back against the car seat. "You're so stressful, I swear." He looked up. "Seriously Kai, you have to let me pay you back. I would say you didn't have to do that but if you hadn't then we would have been stuck but, _I have to pay you back! Is. That. Nice. And. Clear. For. You?_"

"I don't think I've ever had to say no so many times in the space of one hour… ok stuff that, I have, but still, no."

"Ugh! You're impossible!"

"Thank you."

"UGH!!"

"Irritable is another word people use to describe me."

I laughed as Jesse pulled a face. Kai was often sarcastic but this was different… it was funny.

"You're funny Kai." Exclaimed Annie Belle.

"Not funny, just overly sarcastic."

Annie Belle laughed, even though we doubted she even knew what sarcastic meant.

"Will you stop moving?! Damn you have such a bony butt!" Jesse shoved Annie Belle off his lap and into the empty seat.

Mumbling, Annie Belle did up the seat belt and crossed her arms, looking out the window and attempting to chew on her lollipop, which the doctor had given her for being a brave girl.

I seem to get caught up with the weirdest crowds.

* * *

**So there you go! thanks to my reviewers by the way. oh, and if ur a fan of talaxkai, please check out my story 'as long as your here with me' its romance and yaoi (no duh ;P) and i guess hurt and comfort. no humour. sorry. XD**

**bye!  
kavbj**


	7. Break Up Then Make Up

**IT'S BEEN LIKE 6 MONTHS OR SOMETHING!! Do you realize that?! I didnt, not until neko-girl16 sent me a review to ask if I was updating anytime soon. So thank her for this update! And I thank her profusely. I had sort of been stuck, I knew what I wanted to happen, but I couldn't make it happen. Either way, this is what ya get. Kind of forced sounding but oh well. Also very shortish but I need to do this in parts so I can get it straight. Thank You to those who reviewed the previous chapter and again sorry for the long wait but Hawaii, school, Singapore, London and Bangkok to that to you... C: enjoy!**

* * *

**Break Up Then Make Up. The Wonderful Cycle of Love - Sarcasm!**

"Hey Kai…?" began Jesse, grinning slyly. I raised my eyebrow at him and he winked.

"No, I am not going to allow you to pay me back for the damn stitches. Ask me one more time and you'll be the one who needs the damn stitches… if I don't end up killing you that is." Kai replied boredly.

Jesse's eyebrow twitched.

"Trust me, he wouldn't hesitate to carry out the threat," murmured Tala. "If it weren't for Spencer, do you think Ian would have survived all these years? I mean between me, Bry and Kai…" he trailed off and seeing as I was in the back, and couldn't actually see the expression on his face, then I could easily guess that there would be a wicked and malicious and probably slightly sadistic, smirk as his evil mind thought up evil potential death possibilities for Ian.

"Getting back to the 'hey Kai,' I was wondering if I could borrow your phone? Mine's dead."

Kai looked at Jesse suspiciously through the rear-view mirror but nodded anyway. "It's going to come through loud speaker though."

"Doesn't matter!" was Jesse's quick dismissal as he snatched up the phone from where it was sitting in the cup holder up front.

Jesse quickly dialled in the number and the dialling tone rang through the car. Haha, dialling tone rang? Through the car? Haha! I crack myself up, haaaaaaaaaaaa…. Hmm.

**"Hello, Nakamura Incorporated, Akemi speaking. How may I help you?"**

"Mi-Mi! How are you?" Jesse smirked.

**"Jesse Darling! I'm good and you?**"

"'M alright. I'd love to chat a bit more but I need to talk to Dad so…"

"**I'll connect you through right away."**

"Thank you…" muttered Jesse.

We waited while this really crap elevator/ 'please-hold' music played.

Actually, why do they play that? To make the elevator or wait seem shorter? In my opinion, which of course is oh so important, the wait or ride seems longer 'cause the music is so damn annoying. They should really work on their psychology stuff.

"**Hello, Nakamaru Incorporated Financial Sector, Hayate speaking."**

"Yo Dad! How ya been?"

**"Jesse?"**

"You sound shocked." And Jesse smirked. Obviously a private joke of some sort. Yes I will be your commentator for tonight's match.

"**Well yeah, a little. What's up?"**

"I need you to write a cheque. For stitches."

"**Learn the word _please_****, firstly. And who names their child Stitches? Or it some sort of nickname?"**

"No I mean stitches as in… stitches."

Kai shot an annoyed glare at Jesse before looking back at the road.

There was a sigh on the other line.** "What'd you do now? Who'd you beat up, what'd you break and what's the price?"**

Jesse flinched. Let me elaborate… and don't look at me like that! After his parent's break-up (oh yeah they're divorced. Did I forget to mention that? Well I have now. So now I shall continue on with my fabulous elaboration-ening...) Jesse went down hill. And I mean dow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-_**own**_! He constantly got into fights and was placed on Academic and Behaviour Probation.

"No one and nothing. And I don't know how much the damn price is! Just write a fucking cheque for how ever much you think it costs to Kai Hiwatari for stitches!"

"**Hold your tongue! You had better watch that mouth of yours! Has your mother taught you nothing?"**

"Like you'd know! You never talk to her!"

"**Jess' you know it-"**

"Shut up and stop giving excuses. Just write the damn cheque and get it over with already." Jesse sat back and crossed his arms.

"**Alright, guessing how much money for stitches to who?"**

"Kai Hiwatari. H-i-w-a-t-a-r-i."

"**I know how to spell. Hang on." **There was the sound of a pen being put down on a desk.

"**Kai Hiwatari? Isn't he that guy from beyblading or something or rather? He's famous right?"**

"Yeah…" Jesse answered slowly.

"**Well isn't he rich or something? Shouldn't he pay for his own stitches? As if it'd be expensive for him. Actually you never told me who got stitches."**

"Annie Belle got the stitches."

"**Annie Belle? Jess' as her older brother, you're supposed to be looking out for her."**

"I _was_. Look, it probably could have been prevented, but it wasn't. So will you _write the cheque?_"

"**Yes, yes. To Kao Hiwatari."**

"_Kai_ Hiwatari."

"**What were you doing hanging out with him? You know I don't think highly of him. You've seen him. Stupid badass attitude. He's rude and arrogant. That grandfather of his didn't raise him very well."**

By now Jesse's eyes had gotten comically wide. And if weren't for the current situation, I probably would've laughed.

Kai had flung his hand across the car and covered Tala's mouth with his hand so that the red head couldn't say anything, which he was desperately trying to do.

Jesse leant froward into the front of the car, pressing every button as he tried to hang up, clearly forgetting that the phone was in… _my_ lap? Oops. I flipped it open and stared. Uh... which button out of the gazillion in front of me do I press?

"…**And look at his friends. I mean the Russian team, not the Japanese. Demolition boys? Who calls themselves that? And now what is it… Blitzkrieg or something? It's rather stupid. Obviously they have very little education. Blitzkrieg? They're Russian and they call themselves Blitzkrieg, that's humorous."**

Jesse was fretting now, pulling at his hair as he tried to get a word in. I tried to get his attention to show him I had the phone but he was panicking too much.

Kai, however, did. His voice was cold and emotionless as he said, "Kobayashi-san, my name is Kai Hiwatari. Please do not worry about the cheque for the stitches. It was no trouble at all. Have a nice day."

Just as Kai hung up, the button being on the steering wheel, Annie Belle, totally oblivious, managed to get in a quick, "bye Daddy!" and then the line went dead.

Jesse sat back and chewed on his lower lip. "Kai… I am really, _really _sorry, I mean, if I knew he would have said that…"

Kai sighed and tilted his head to one side, then the other. "It's nothing, trust me. I've had worse." The next few words muttered under his breath almost made my heart stop. "Fuck, I've had worse from my own team mates. And this time, _I mean the Japanese team._"

Were we that awful to him… ok yes, we were. I'd have to tell the others.

A quiet growl came from Tala and Kai glanced at him. He said something to the redhead in Russian.

Tala stared straight ahead for a few seconds before drawing his knees to his chest and curling up.

I really didn't want to break the silence… ok screw that. "Kai is he ok?"

"He's thinking."

Ok, ok. Next. "Are you ok?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

He needs to ask? Yeesh and people thought I could be pretty slow at times. Notice there is no_ most_ before the _times_.

* * *

We drove for a few more minutes before finally turning into the parking lot at the mall.

We were driving and driving, going towards the end, closer to the shops we usually went to when, "duckies!"

Jesse and I looked at Annie Belle and then followed her finger. Aw, cute! A mummy duck and her little fuzzy things. Adorable!

Tala looked up and then at Kai. "Don't even think about it Hiwatari."

Kai smirked. "Too late!"

Tala's eyes widened and he leaned forward, placing one hand on the dashboard and ignoring the slight strain in the seatbelt. "Kai! Don't!"

Kai's smirk grew and he pushed down on the accelerator. Our speed picked up, and fast. And guess what? We were heading straight for the mummy duck and her little fuzzy things. Oh my God, Kai's gonna kill the ducks!

I squeezed my eyes, waiting for the little 'bump. Bump. Bump.' That I knew was coming. Instead, I felt the car swerve out to the right, then spin before pulling to a stop.

I pried my eyes open. What the hell? We've parked. I looked out the rear window. And the ducks are alive! No duck pancakes for brekkie!

People were walking past the car cautiously, staring. Great, I hate starers. Do they have nothing better to do?

Kai sat back in his seat, shooting an apologetic look at us in the back, before giving a small grin. "I haven't been able to do something like in ages!"

Tala glared at Kai. He undid his buckle and climbed out of the car and slammed the door shut.

Kai frowned and undid his own seatbelt. He sat up straight, looking out of the window, and his frown deepened. He soon climbed out of the car and stood in the doorway and called out to Tala.

Jesse, Annie Belle and I climbed out as well and we started walking with Kai. Well let's hope I don't have to experience something like that in the next 10 000 years. I think that'll be long enough.

* * *

Kai was quick to catch up to Tala, who, I swear, couldn't walk much faster… unless he was running… I'm confusing myself, how about I move on?

Kai, much to my –annoyance- surprise, hooked arms with Tala. And Tala, much to my –glee- surprise, hastily and sharply pulled away from Kai.

Kai frowned and I felt my heart flutter… haha it has wings, get it? No? No I didn't think so. That is what an education is for people! I sighed.

Anyway, Kai stood stubbornly and refused to move. He called out to Tala repetitively until it got on the redhead's nerve so much that BAM he snapped.

"What?" he growled. You know he would look so much more threatening if he didn't have that lollipop in his mouth. He marched over to Kai and seized his wrists up in his pale fingers. His other hand came up to grab a hold of Kai's chin, forcing him to look up at Tala. Which he did, just in more of a…. glary….fashion.

"What's their problem," whispered Tyson as he and the others came up to join us, just as Tala hissed at Kai in Russian.

I shrugged. Seriously, does it look like I'd be the type of guy to speak Russian? I may be smart, but even _I'm_ not _that_ smart.

Kai shook Tala's grip off of him, and snarled in a very Bryan like fashion. He took a step forward and glared up at Tala, their noses almost touching. The intense moment was ruined by a very high pitched squeal that, for once did not come from Hilary – or me for that matter – but two girls to our right.

Simultaneously, Kai's and Tala's heads swivelled to glare at the two fan girls, who looked like they were about to fall into a dead faint. But could ya blame them, really? I mean, the two hottest beybladers, other than me of course,_ thank you, thank you_, were currently having one of the deadliest glare offs the world had ever seen.

"Fuck off," the two Russians snapped and beside me Tyson shook his head.

"Seriously, this twin stuff is freaking me out man," he said and placed his hands on his hips on what looked like a very Hilary-like fashion. Max, Diachi and I snickered. Jesse gave a sharp bout of laughter, his hands covering Annie Belle's ear in case the two McHotties decided to swear again.

The two girls scampered off and Kai and Tala's attention snapped to each other once again.

"Ooh," exclaimed Hilary. "Magazines!" she rushed over to the stall and picked one up. Kai's eyes were following her and they landed on the basket next to her. Curious, he pulled away from Tala and went to investigate. He squatted to read the one on display.

I walked over and joined him, quickly turning away. The headline stuck in my head, and I heard Kai snort as he flicked the mag open.

**Kai Hiwatari: Father at 17?**

Below was a picture of Kai with a little girl holding his hand and an even younger boy sitting on his hip, walking down a crowded street.

I hadn't heard Tala come up behind us so I froze when I heard a growl. I stepped to the side cautiously, joining my team as Tala read the headline for himself. Kai was frozen in place, eyes narrowed, waiting for Tala's reaction.

Tala's foot came around in a high kick, knocking the stand over with an enraged shout. Kai held his arms above his head as the magazines fell around him. Beside me, Max lurched forward with a shout of Kai's name. Kai opened his eyes and raised his head, diving to the side just in time before the stand fell, landing with a bang where Kai would have been.

Everyone was silent, the shoppers going past stopped talking and walked by slowly to see what was going on. I congratulated myself on being the first to reach Kai, and I held my hand out to him, to help him up. Very movie scene like, I know. The hot, brave, handsome, intelligent, heroic hero helping and rescuing the beautiful, even more intelligent, kind, caring, hot princess. I sighed dreamily and cocked my head to the side, picturing it all.

"Are you all right Kai?" Hilary's voice broke through my dreams and I whipped my head to the right.

"O-Oi guys!" I cried. "Wait for me!"

* * *

Tyson's stomach had declared it time for lunch, and then Diachi's was the second warning bell. We were currently heading for the food court. It was a really nice area, really. It was kind of outside, on this really nice balcony sort of thing with really nice chairs and tables and a really nice view of the pond. The food shoppy things were really good with really good food. All in all it was really nice, really… my brain goes a bit funny when its really-nice-food deprived. I smiled and Jesse pulled away, eye brows up to his hair line. Nothing had come out loud had it?

"Oh only everything. And your brain's a bit funny with or without really-nice-food deprivation," Jesse smirked and punched me playfully in the shoulder.

…what's deprivation mean? I turned to Kai to ask him, but the fore longed expression in his eyes almost broke my heart. Don't you like my big words?

"Kai, what's wrong with Tala?" I asked. I held my breath. There, I had done what everyone else had been waiting to do.

Without taking his eyes off Tala's back, Kai leaned in and responded, "He's over protective of me, worried. Jesse's dad pissed him off, from then on everything else just made it worse."

"Overprotective?" asked Max, joining our hush-hush conversation. I felt like a high school girl gossiping. And I liked it! I liked it, I liked it a lot! Insert the girly giggle and the weird stares.

"Overprotective as in what you are to us? Caring about us so much your own health and safety doesn't matter until you know we're all ok? The readiness you feel at giving your own life to protect us from whatever, to make sure we keep our innocence and to hide our minds from the grimmer things in the world like what really goes on in the Abbey?"

Kai blinked and looked at Max. A small grin formed on his lips and he ruffled Max's hair. "Yeah, sort of like that."

Max shrugged. "Then do something about it." And he walked off, leaving both Kai and I very confused at his _oh-so-wise words_. Why'd he get to look impressive?! I was thinking that too-oo! Argh!

I felt someone patting my head and I scowled. "Don't worry Rei," came Kai's voice. "I know you were thinking it too, no need to whine about."

I think I just turned as red as Tala's hair.

* * *

We finally found a flashy really nice restaurant-y thing and after Tyson and Diachi ordered their ten thousand plates and Annie Belle tried to copy, we finally got settled onto a conversation that entertained me greatly.

"So Tyson," drawled Jesse, chin resting comfortably in his hand. "Hilary seems to have rubbed off on you quite well." He stood on his chair and peered down at us. Pretending to flip his hair back, he jutted one hip out to the side, pursed his lips and, making a big arch with his arms, placed his hands on his hips.

Tyson scowled and Hilary blinked owlishly. As Jesse sat back down in a highly feminine manner, we laughed and applauded him.

"I don't like her or anything, if that's what you're thinking," grumbled Tyson.

"We weren't," cooed Jesse, leaning forward. "But now that you mention it!" he swung back on his chair and tipped his head back to let out a melodious caw of laughter.

Tyson scowled but then he perked up. I knew that look! I'd had it happen to me before! The light bulb had gone off! _He had an __idea!_ It's so exciting when it happens!

"Although," Tyson said slyly. I grew worried when he threw me a smug look over the table. "_Rei_ however…"

I threw him a warning look back, but he ignored it and placed a hand over his heart mockingly. "Rei is _very_ much in love with a certain someone… that goes by the name of K-"

I lashed out with my leg and kicked him in the shin.

"_OW!! OH SHIT!_" he rubbed his leg and glared at me.

I took a sip from my drink and toyed with my straw. Looking at him blankly, I kept my expression calm and my voice slightly sarcastic as I said monotonously, "oh I'm sorry, was that your leg?"

Tyson glared harder and sat up straight. I heard his feet slide on the ground as he drew his feet in. "As I was _saying,_ that _arse_ over there that goes by the name of Rei Kon is very much in love with –"

I lashed out again and Tyson was cut off by a loud grunt from Kai, who had placed himself in between Diachi and Tyson to separate them. "Holy _fuck!"_ he reached down to rub his shin and my eyes grew wide.

I threw my arms towards him, knocking over my drink. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Was that your leg?!"

Kai nodded slowly, eyebrows rising at my reaction.

"Hehe I'm very… _twitchy_ today," I laughed nervously. I scratched the back of my head.

Tala, who had ended up sitting next to me and directly opposite Kai, laughed loudly and narrowed his eyes at Kai. "Aw, does it hurt?"

Kai growled and stood, slamming his hands on the table. "What the _fuck_ is your _problem_, Ivanov?" he snarled.

Tala copied Kai and stood. "Starts with a K, ends in an I." He replied mockingly, cocking his head side to side with each letter.

The two growled at each other and we all slowly edged our chairs away from them. Tala grabbed a fistful of Kai's hair and tugged him forward, smashing his lips to Kai's in a bruising kiss. They glared at each other before Kai pulled away.

They stared at each other, breathing heavily.

Tala smirked and crossed his arms across his chest. "I tend to worry a bit, sorry."

"Break up then make up. The wonderful cycle of love - sarcasm!" I muttered under my breath and with a sigh, I plopped my chin in my hand. I felt strangely dejected.

Kai shook his head and laughed.

**DONE!! I'm on school holidays, so I should -hopefully- be able to update. I know where I'm going with this! Finally! I think... please review!**

**TTFN!**

**Kavbj**


	8. Painful Memories, Theme Songs & Russian

_**Painful Memories, Theme Songs and Russian Whatsie-Whos-It?**_

I think you all discovered after the ice-skating that Beyblading, and if I'm lucky, martial arts, are the only sports I am really any good at. According to me, _bowling_ is a sport… get the picture?

Well now picture this: me on the couch, being tended to – no not by Kai or Tala, but by Hilary Tachibana – if that's even her _real name!_ Two of my toes are broken; probably a couple of my fingers… and this damn ice pack is cold. I give you, like I gave my team mates, 2 free minutes to laugh at my dilemma. In these two – no let's make it one – minute, I will not attempt to kill you. And the clock starts… NOW!

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand time is _up!_ You may now stop laughing.

"I think you're merely over exaggerating Rei," said Hilary as she walked into the room, a glass of chocolate milk in her hand.

I asked for HOT chocolate milk! And no I'm not _over exaggerating_!

"I _know_ what you asked for," snapped Hilary as she passed me the milk and plopped down next to me. "I just couldn't be bothered. And I highly doubt any part of your body is broken… miraculously."

Then guess what she did? She practically _punched_ my broken toes!

"See," she said, looking ever so smug. "If they were broken, you would have been sobbing like the baby you are."

_I will kill her. I will kill her. I will kill her._ But, she's probably right. I sighed. Looks like I'm stuck doing the ballroom dancing. Flopping back on the couch, I conjured up the ever so painful memories of … BOWLING!! _Dun, dun, duuuuuuuuuuuun._

_

* * *

_

**Painful Memory 1:**

"I am _not _wearing those shoes; they smell like Tyson… well Tyson's socks. If they smelt like Tyson, it'd be a whole lot worse."

**Painful Memory 2:**

"How the hell do you pick these things up? Let alone hold them and then _throw_ them, or whatever you do? … Oh like this… this thing weighs a _tonne!_ … CRAP MY FOOT!!"

**Painful Memory 3:**

"CRAP MY FOOT!!"

**Painful Memory 4:**

"CRAP MY FOOT!!"

**Painful Memory 5:**

"CRAP MY FOOT!!"

**Painful Memory 6:**

"CRAP MY FOOT!!"

**Painful Memory 9: **(repeat **Painful Memory 6** another 3 times.)

"Crap, crap, ARGH! Oof… why the hell is this floor so slippery? It's worse than the bloody ice…"

**Painful Memory 10:**

"STRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!! Uh-uh-uh-booyah!"

"Rei, you're supposed to hit the pins."

"You mean the things aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the way down _there_?"

"Yes… what you just got is called a gutter ball."

"W-well anyone can _hit_ the pins! It takes skill to miss them. I mean, _come on_! There's like _10_ of them!"

"You're a rebel."

* * *

I think you get my point… ooh something smells goo-ood! I managed to hobble along to the kitchen, saying hello to my friend Bob a few times along the way, and stood in the doorway.

Looks like Tala was in the middle of making lunch… or an early dinner/late lunch. Do you know I have to go _ballroom dancing in a PINK dress in like… how ever long it is?!_ I know, shocking, how do I live with such horrors as these? I know, I know; I just don't know. Wait… I think I just contradicted myself… hehe look at the big word!  
Oh hang on this looks serious… by god it is!

Kai was staring at Tala intently, who was rushing around the kitchen while talking on his fancy looking phone. Suddenly he froze. The Russian that had been pouring out of his mouth stopped and his eyes hardened. Finally, it was like someone had pressed play and he came back to life.

Slamming the pot onto the bench, he hissed a bit of Russian down the phone then waited for the person's reply. He blinked and frowned.

"Bryan?"

Bryan? What the hell does that mean in Russian…?

"Bryan! Bryan you idiot! Oh get fucked!"

Oh Bryan's a _person!_ Hey I know him too! …oops. Kai and I winced as Tala threw the phone against the floor, where it decided to smash into a lot of pieces. Fun.

"What happened?" I asked Kai, taking a place next to him. I almost fainted when I realised how close our chairs were… oh my god! Our hands _brushed!_ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"_Are you quite done screaming?" _snapped Tala, his face dangerously close to mine. Kai placed a hand on Tala's shoulder and shoved him away from me.

"What happened?" he asked sternly and let the entertainment begin. I might get to catch up on some goss here.

Uh-huh…-uh-huh… wait, that's Russian! I don't understand Russian! English, _English!_ I sighed and waited not-so-very-patiently for them to finish.

Fine, go on without me! Traitors! I paled. I so hope that hadn't come out. The traitor thing was still a tender issue for Kai, even though we were all over it. We understood what he had planned, and we still trusted him with our lives, so it was all good.

You know what I just realised, I have no idea where Hiro disappeared after ice skating… strange… he must've gone to work… am I trying to entertain and therefore distract myself while I wait for Kai and Tala to finish and then hopefully explain it to me? Why yes, yes I am.  
I'll tell you who can entertain me! The idiots! Off I go!

The chivalry has arrived! Eh… heh… heh… yes that would be me panting. I decided to check everywhere else but the living room and ended up running through the whole house before I remembered that I hadn't remembered to check the living room… which of course is where they were the whole time.

"Hey Rei! Hey Rei!" chorused Tyson and Max. Do you know how annoying that is? 'Hey Rei! Hey Rei!' Oh for god's sake!

"You ok dude? You look a little puffed," said Max. Oh what, now you notice? You're good friends, guys, re-

"Doesn't matter! Rei, guess what!" –al good friends.

"What, Tyson?" I sighed. I think I might take a seat. Oh my toes are starting to hurt. I'd forgotten about them!

"We came up with our own theme song!"

"You what?" I looked at them seriously. They had what now? I heard a collective groan from Hilary, Diachi, Jesse and even Annie Belle and – oh look Hiro's back! He groaned too. I knew that this was going to be as bad as the time when they discovered the llama song. Or worse… the song that never ends. Wait, did any one hear a groan from Kenny?

I looked to the chief. _Ba_stard! He was sitting quite happily with Dizzi on his lap and _ear plugs in!_ _**BASTARD!!**_

"Ready Ty?"

"I'm ready Max!"

They took a deep breath and – enter Tala and Kai.

"Call him back," growled Kai, closing the door to the living room with a quiet click. He walked over calmly to where Tala was not-so-calmly pacing the room, lips pulled back in a snarl and eyes narrowed. Kai forced him to stand still and then handed him his phone.

Waaaaaaaaaaaait waitwaitwait _wait_! Didn't that thing break into pieces! Damn these phone things, they astound me more than they should! …Can my phone do that?

With a dejected sigh, Tala took the phone and plopped down on the floor, legs sprawled out. He flipped it open and dialled the number.

Kai took a seat next to Tala who pulled the phone away from his ear, placed it on the ground and – hey why can we all hear it suddenly? These things are magical!

"He put it on loudspeaker Rei," said Hiro, rolling his eyes. "There's nothing magical about it."

Can my phone do that as well? Ooh, tell me more about this _loud speaker?_

"Why isn't he picking up?" asked Kai, moving closer to Tala. Oi back away buddy, you're mine remember? Oh, wait you don't know that yet… you _will_ be mine… mwahahahahahahahahaha! U-ugh water! _**Water**_!

"Nice Rei, nice," drawled Hilary as she handed me my unfinished chocolate milk. I really need to work on that evil laugh.

"_Hey this is the Blitzkrieg Boys, consisting of Ian the Magnificent And Oh-So Handsome, Spencer the Intelli-Intelligeeee-nt, Intelligent, Tala the Weird… or Dumb, which ever suits and - sometimes Kai the Scary - and Bryan the StupidAssholeWhoThinksHe'sSoGoodWhenHeReallyIsntAndWeAllllllllKnowIanTheMagnificentIsBetterAndBryanIsJustDumbAndUglyAndStupidAnd –_

_Hey Ian?_

_Yeah?_

_Eat This!"_

There was a scream and a bit of static then,

"_This is the Blitzkrieg Boys; please leave a message after the beep… _

_Spencer let go! _

_Ian you're dead!_

_Hehe come get me… AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! SPENCER!! **–BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP-**…"_

Well that was interesting… much more amusing then our answering machine.

Tala looked like he was about to have a cow, and Kai looked surprised.

Tala shook his head and spoke hesitantly, saying, "Bry? Bryan, pick up. I know you're there, you asshole."

This earned him a punch from Kai.

"Look, all of G Revs heard that damn answering machine so just pick up… Bryan? Why'd you let it go to answering machine? Why didn't you pick up? Bry, you're scaring us now, ha ha, very funny… Bryan? O-ok then, well, I'm sure you're fine... Look, I'm sorry, all right? Just call back when you get this, ok?" He hung up.

Tala looked to Kai, eyes wide. "Call Spence."

Kai stared Tala in the eye and shook his head. "Give him some time, Tala. He's been improving. He'll be fine. Spencer and Ian wouldn't have left him if they didn't think he'd be ok."

Tala's phone started ringing and Tala answered it hurriedly. "Bryan? Oh thank god you're ok…"

Kai smirked and stood, ushering us out of the room. "Come on. We'll get to lunch."

* * *

Lunch/dinner was… interesting.

"Seeing as we didn't get to show you guys our theme song earlier," said Tyson.

"We decided to give you some entertainment while you ate," finished Max.

Oh god, I had thought we had escaped this. Guess not.

"Tala?" whispered Kai, not taking his eyes off the evil duo. "When this is done, don't try to kill them. Remember, murder is illegal? That ring a bell? And I don't have the money to bail you out this time, thanks to my fucking-loving-go-die-in-some-hole Grandfather."

I gulped. I think I'm going to get a padlock placed on Tala's door, so we can lock him in there at night… and we'll plaster up the windows.

Tyson and Max opened their mouths and, dear lord, began.

"There's so many days in permanent vacation  
And Hiro comes along just to end it  
So the annual problem for our generation  
Is finding the best way to spend it

Like maybe!  
Flooding the bathroom  
Annoying the neighbour  
Or pretending to have super powers

Imagining Hilary doesn't exist (Hey!)  
Or finally giving Diachi a shower

Destroying microwaves  
Building a pillow fort  
Or locating Rei's missing brain (It's over here!)

Signing autographs  
Escaping crazy fans  
Or driving our Captain insane (Tyson!)

As you can see  
There's a whole lot of stuff to do  
Before Kenny ruins it all (Come on Maxie!)

So stick with us 'cause Tyson and Max  
Are gonna do it all  
So stick with us 'cause Tyson and Max are  
Gonna do it all!  
(Kai! Hilary's annoying the crap out of me! )"

Well… don't know about you lot but I'm speechless… FINDING MY BRAIN?!

We were all silent. Hilary and Diachi were furious. Tala was twitching, Kai's hand on his forearm being the only thing stopping him from murdering Tyson and Max. Hiro and Kenny were stunned into silence. I wondered if they were thinking the same thing as me: when did those two become that smart?

To our surprise, the one who broke the silence was _Tala._ He started _laughing._

"Did you guys really do all that? That's hilarious!" He tipped his head back and suddenly stopped laughing. "Driving your captain insane?" He looked at them and glared. "No wonder why… that explains so much as to why Kai… YOU GUYS ARE _SO_ DEAD!"

"RUN MAXIE! RUN!"

The plates and cutlery went everywhere as Tala reached across the table in an attempt to stop Max and Tyson from escaping. Kai grabbed him by the shirt and, with a bit of effort, hauled him back. But Tala wasn't one to give up. He stood on his chair and jumped over the table, skidding as he landed, before giving chase. You know, I suddenly know why the people with ninja-like skills, meaning Tala, Kai and Hiro, were placed on the far side of the table… interesting. I can still hear Max and Tyson's screams… you know a normal person would usually stop one of their friends from murdering two more of their friends but, well, I'm not normal, and… FINDING MY BRAIN?!

* * *

I stalked around them, my prisoners. Saucepan on my head as a helmet and ladle over my shoulder like a gun, I pulled to a halt and tightened the skipping rope around them, my bow falling slack when I let go.

"Now," I said, putting on the world's greatest German accent, even greater than the accent of the Germans themselves. "Vhy, may I ask-echhhhhh." I rubbed at my throat. That weird echhhhhh sound hurts! "Vhy did you think my braaaaaain vaz mizzing in dee virst place?"

Tyson opened his mouth to answer then leaned over to Max. "What'd he just say?"

Max's brow furrowed. "I think he said, vhy, may I ask-echhhhhh-ch-ch-chhhhhhhh, vhy did you think my braaaaaain vaz mizzing in dee virst place?"

"Oh, ok." Tyson looked back up at me. "I'm sorry, I don't speak _echhhhhhhhhhh_."

I could feel my eyebrow twitching, and I suddenly understood why Kai, Tala and Jesse's eyebrows twitch so much. "GERMAN!" I snapped. "_German_, I was speaking _German!_"

"Das ist nicht Deutsch." Max beamed up at me.

"_Accent!_ A German _accent!_ …and when the hell did you learn to speak German?"

Max shrugged, and the rope around him fell to the ground. "Oops, sorry, hang on." He pulled the rope back up around him before finally answering me. "I learnt it from Robert. I tried saying something in German to him once. He twitched and then said that to me… or something like that. I don't remember exactly… I think I sort of made it up… well at least the word order, some of the words are right though."

Would anyone like to tell me as to when this blonde American idiot sitting in front of me became… un-idiot-ish?

Kai snorted. "Rei, in my opinion, you're all idiots. You've tied them up with a jump rope, and in the end they had to tie it themselves, and you're marching around with a cooking pot of your head and waving a _soup ladle_ around like some sort of weapon. Tyson's grown some wit, admittedly yes, but he is currently sitting tied up in a rope he tied himself and Max just pulled the rope back up when it fell off him."

…You know he makes a good point… I sighed and dropped my ladle. Surprisingly quiet, Max and Tyson freed themselves and moved over to the couch to play playstation. Haha… play playstation… there's two plays. I find that rather amusing it's like… Rei Rei Kon… no it's not like that… then it's like a- nuh I got nothin'.

I pulled the pot from my head and glanced over at Kai. I froze and the pot fell from my hand. Who made that girly scream? Oh, that was me.

Tyson and Max looked at me and then followed my shaking finger. They froze. Seconds later, Hiro, Tala and Diachi flew through the doors, Tala in the lead. "What's wrong? Who screamed?"

Kai slowly tore his eyes away from the evil trio and _I_ – oh look at my fancy English skills… no, wait… it's supposed to be 'me' – and looked at Tala.

"Who screamed? Why that would have been Rei and no to answer you're silent question, it was not some rabid fan girl. As to what's going on, well… I have no idea."

I shook my head. How could he not know what was wrong?! "Y-you're COLD!"

All eyes now turned to Kai, who was sitting in the armchair with his laptop, wrapped up tightly in a blanket and still cold.

Panic seemed to spread like some weird disease as my team hurried around the house, yelling to each other.

Tyson grabbed all the blankets from the linen closet, Max grabbed the doonas off the beds, Hilary and I got him hot chocolate and something warm to eat and Diachi grabbed a bunch of pillows. All the while, Hiro, Tala and Kai stared at us weirdly.

Once we were sure Kai was comfy and warm, we relaxed. Kai never, as in never, gets cold. And whenever he did, something went wrong.

Like the time Tyson broke his leg, Kai had been cold the night before. And when I lost Drigger, as in the actual beyblade (oops?), he had been shivering that morning when we were at the park. You catch my drift? And the colder he gets, the worse it's going to be. It was like some otherworldly intuitive gift thing. How _cool_ are those words! I know, I know.

Tala sat himself in the chair across from Kai and looked at him through narrow eyes. He jabbed an accusing finger in Kai's direction. "You've been walking on your toes, too."

Kai sighed and nodded solemnly, shifting awkwardly under all the blankets. He shivered again and I wondered how he could still be cold. I can't believe it didn't hit me till now. I mean, I even saw Kai shivering in the kitchen when Tala was first on the phone to Bryan. Again, _how did I not notice?!_

Wait, wait. I know the answer: I'm Rei Kon. Simply put. No questions asked, no lies told. I didn't know what that saying meant but it sounded cool.

Tyson and Max resumed playing playstation (ah, that still gets me) and eventually, Tala joined them out of curiosity.

"Kai, Rei, you _have got _to try this!" he exclaimed, waving wildly at the screen and curling his tongue around his lollipop.

Kai, to all of our surpising-ing-ness, actually walked over with a quilt around his shoulders and sat on the floor next to Tala.

Still in shock, Tyson wordlessly handed Kai the remote-y thing and stepped away.

"Aim?"

"Shoot the balls so that they match colours. Three or more and they burst. Don't let your screen get full or you'll lose."

Kai nodded, selected a character that went by the name of Wolo and the game started.

Max and Tyson watched them with wide eyes, constantly checking that the two had never played the game before, only to constantly get a no. I learnt the name of the game to be Super Bust-A-Move, and I must admit, it looked pretty addictive.

"Oi Rei?" called Tala, not looking away from the screen. I stepped forward. "Can you fetch some food? I'm starving."

"Rei if you could go to the lower left hand corner of the cupboards, and get the packet of crisps with Russian on them, that would be really appreciated."

Well how the hell was I supposed to say no to Kai when he asked like that… ok correction, how the hell was I supposed to say no to Kai? Well? Yeah exactly, I couldn't.

"Sure, sure," I replied, grinning. I turned towards the kitchen and froze. "What lower left hand corner of the cupboards… and what does Russian look like?"

* * *

**Well there you go... if you could all ignore the time difference between this update and the last... but I am determined to get the Chrissie Chapter up by Chrissie, and the New Years Chapter up by New Years, though the later will be a little bit more difficult.**

**I know I promised the dancing in this chapter, but it was getting rather long and I never would have been able to put in the dancing without the chapter getting ridiculously long, so I am sorry, that will be the next chapter... that and hopefully the next bit of Kai torture that I have planned, along with a side order of Tala torture... yes, I am guilty as charged, I enjoy torturing my favourite characters, no matter what show or book or whatever it is... AND I KNOW I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE!!**

**The playstation game does not belong to me (well it does... but it doesn't... I just have the game) it belongs to Taito. And Tyson and Max's theme song is a rewritten version of the Phineas and Ferb theme song., which Disney owns. That is a strangely amusing show, and I have to feel for Candace, I know what it's like... and I think that's all, so sorry for boring you with this extremely long author's note.**

**Thank You to my reviewers and keep 'em coming, they truly make my day. You should honestly see my reaction when I see if I've had any more hits, and when it comes to reviews, well that's even more amusing. C:**

**TTFN**

**Kavbj**


	9. High Heels, Boggle and Clubs

**_High Heels, Boggle and Clubs_**

"We're back!" called Jesse, entering the living room with one very cute looking Annie Belle holding on to his hand. Jesse pulled the little girl behind him protectively when he saw Hilary.

"Yo!" called Tyson, jumping out from behind the couch covered head to toe in rapper's gear.

Jesse stared, as we had all done not five minutes go. "What the fuck are you wearing dude?" Again, that's along the lines of what we had all _said_ not five minutes ago.

Tyson threw his hands up. "What is it with you people, honestly? Re_lax_, have some fun!"

Oh my gosh! I just thought of something good. Standing proudly, I walked over to Tyson and gently patted his head. "How about you go stand over there in the corner, you know, in the designated Freak Section, hm? Sound good?"

I beamed at him. Oh yeah, look at that! Sarcasm, smartness and wit thrown into one! Go Rei Kon!

"Nice try Rei, but Tala said that to me earlier, man."

Oh, so that's why I though I'd heard it before. My face fell. Greaaaaaaaaaaaaat well there goes that plan.

Tala stood, grinning, and curled his tongue around his lollipop. "Hilary, Rei, it's time to get ready," he announced.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* * *

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed as Tala pulled back to let me see myself in the mirror. It's pink goddamn it! In addition, it is a _dress_ goddamn it! What is this world coming to?

I was wearing this horrid thing, frills and all, that was pink, and that was a dress… am I the _only one_ seeing the problem with this?!

"Found them!" exclaimed Hilary as she emerged from the bathroom that was connected to the guest room. She held up the pink ribbons and something else… something… shiny.

She came over and pinned the shiny thing to my waist. Oh how cute! It's a little cat's head!

Hilary glanced up at me and frowned. "Rei you've licked off your lip gloss… again."

Oh, did I happen to mention I am wearing _make-up?_

Sighing, Hilary walked around me and proceeded to unwrap my hair. Great, when we get back I'll have to do _that_ again… or get Kai to do it. He did it one time when I was sick and he was fast… and it felt good… actually, no. There is no real reason as to why I want Kai to do it other than the fact _I_ _WANT KAI TO DO IT!_

"Am I still braiding it?" asked Hilary as she weaved her stupid fingers through my hair.

"No."

"Oh?" She slowly slid her hands out and looked at Tala who grinned slyly.

"We'll get _Kai_ to do it. For now, just use the ribbons to tie his hair in a low loose ponytail."

So Hilary did just that, then they attached these shoe things that were friggin high, to my feet and finally said done.

I look like a Disney Princess… not that I have anything against Disney Princesses, they always get kissed by the hot Disney Princes, but I've never wanted to look like one…

* * *

Do you know what Tala has now got playing through the house? When I Grow Up, by the Pussy Cat Dolls. Yes, that's right. He says that models always have music to strut to when they go down the catwalk so I deserve music too. Fun! Not.

Tala and Hilary entered first to 'announce' me, and as they did, I couldn't help but gawk, once again, at Tala as he ran his hand through his not-devil-horns hair.

The navy blue pinstripe pants hugged his legs nicely. Then there was the white dress shirt that was messily tucked in, the loose tie and the matching suit jacket, which he had left open and thrown on carelessly. I now make it illegal to look that good… _ever_, unless it's me of course.

He shoved his hands in his pockets and smirked in Kai's direction. "And here he is, Mr Rei Kon!"

I looked down at my hands… they'd painted my nails too.

"Mr Rei Kon…!"

I wonder what would happen if I twirled a bit.

"Rei? Rei get the fuck out here!"

That would be my cue. Deep breaths and lets go. I stepped into the room and the laughter started. I blushed up to my roots. There was the click of a camera and I glared at Jesse, who waved his phone tauntingly.

Annie Belle ran over to me from where she had been sitting next to a very smug looking Hilary. "Look Rei! We match!" She gave a little twirl and waved her pink-bandaged fingers. Great. I must look like some sort of pedo, standing next to Annie Belle in a matching dress.

"Oh Kai, can you braid Rei's hair, I couldn't get it right," Hilary lied oh so smoothly.

I turned to Kai just in time to see him nod. Oh my fucking lord, thank you for pitying me.

Kai sat in one of the armchairs, tight-black-suit-pants-clad legs crossed, a connected-to-a–white-dress-shirt-that's-tucked-in-clad-arm hand under his chin, his tie loose around his neck and the matching suit jacket thrown over the back of the chair.

Tala sat next to him on the armrest, hands once again in his pockets. I grabbed Jesse's phone and snapped a few pictures. I would need to save this picture for future… future… so yeah I just wanted to take the damn picture.

Handing the phone back to Jesse, I attempted, _attempted_ to take a step forward, but these friggin high shoe things are friggin high… friggin hard to walk in as well. As if my toes weren't bad enough, I am now going to screw my ankle… probably… most likely… I am Rei Kon; do we even need to discuss the certainty of it happening?

Ok, looks like we do, because the unbelievable is happening, I. Am. Not. Falling. Hmm, interesting.

"Idiot," muttered Kai, steadying me… I suddenly love the Disney Princess life. In the same way that they get _kissed_ by the hot Disney Princes, they also get _saved_ by the hot Disney Princes, as Kai so kindly just demonstrated. Grand, isn't it?

"I didn't say they _weren't _lethal, I just said that even Rei wouldn't be able to cause too much physical harm when he was in them… and when I said that, I meant physical harm to those around him," informed Tala as Kai stared at him in the way me and my team had come to learn as the answer-my-question-now-or-die-a-very-slow-torturous-painful-gruesome-the-list-goes-on-death stare. Terrifying, hey? Yeah that's what I thought too.

Do you know that, seeing as we had the same thoughts, you are on the same wavelength or brain wave or whatever, as a genius, meaning me? Alternatively, it could mean I am on the save wavelength or brain wave or whatever, as a bunch of idiots, meaning you… (don't get me wrong, I love you too, but I see everyone around me as idiots (except –ooh brackets inside brackets!- Kai… and Tala) … it's an occupational hazard if ya catch my drift… no? How does Tyson Granger, Diachi Sumeragi-gi-gi or whatever it is and Max Tate… and Hilary I-forget-her-last-name sound to you?) Yeah I prefer the first one, the whole, 'you're on the same wave length or brain wave or whatever, as a genius'. Sound good to you? That's good, because I never really gave a shit in the first place; I just thought I should ask.

"Rei? Who _are_ you talking to?" questioned Tala; looking at me in his bizarre way as though I were crazy… we shall not go into the details of my sanity!

Kai got me to sit down and I shoved my fist (yes I can fit my whole fist inside my mouth, cool isn't?) in my mouth to hopefully stop me from purring as he gently weaved his fingers through my hair, twisting it appropriately until finally a braid trailed down my back and the tips brushed the floor.

"I'm done now Rei, you can move if you'd like… and you can remove your fist, I don't think it really helped…" Kai stepped back to look at me. He leaned in closer and I caught my breath. Pucker up Rei-boy! Kai has finally come to!

O-oh… that works too. Kai's fingers ran through my bangs, messing them up gently so that they sat right on my face.

Kai smirked down at me, fingers still lingering in my hair. "Cheer up, the world's not over… yet anyway," he whispered, his hot breath tickling my skin.

Anyone pull me down from this heaven and they die, got that?

Then before I could even tell what was happening, Kai was gone, stretched out on Tala's lap, quietly talking to him in Russian. My eyes stung and my nose twitched and I wondered if I was about to start crying. I had been so close to what I wanted and then…and then… ACHOO!!

Never mind, I was just going to _sneeze_. My apologies.

* * *

You know a white suit, hot pink dress shirt and converse shoes are so much more comfortable than my Disney Princess outfit. Once again, I have Tala Ivanov to thank. Now he, Kai, Jesse and I match…shoes anyway.

We arrived at the Kick Up Your Heels Dance School in fashion, you know dresses and suits. A bunch of laughing and talking teens emerged from the double doors and I made a very serious assessment (not really I just wanted to say that) a class had just finished.

Tala and Kai lead us in, walked up to the front counter and, let the fun begin.

"Hi, how can I help-" the girl looked up and froze, jaw hanging. "Like omg, you're Tala Ivanov, like the hottest babe ev-er. Omg Kai Hiwatari is, like, here as well?"

What the hell does omg mean? Old Mackie Jo-… no Old Mackie Green. Sounds about right.

Tala smirked dangerously, mask up and working. "English would be nice, now check your books, find my name and let me in."

The girl nodded furiously and Tala's smirk grew, eyes gleaming with a sadistic pleasure. I frowned. This was creepy beyond all reason, and so different from the Tala I knew. I glanced at Kai to see his reaction, but he was leaning back against the counter, hands on the counter to keep him balanced and eyes closed. He smirked as the girl fretted behind him.

The girl was having difficulties finding the book and started babbling. "Omg wtf, where is the book, like, it was right here. D'you know that we go through like, six books each month? Ugh, I can't find the effin' book anywhere. Brb." And she disappeared. Well I understood… some of that.

She re-appeared a couple of minutes later, hunching over as Tala's glare fell on her. She glanced at the rest of us. "Omg, the whole of the like, Bladebreakers, are right here in front of me. Tbh, I never thought this place would be as popular as it is when I first started like… _working_ here. So what ya been up to? Me? Nm. Oh, yeah, there it is. You can like, go through now Mr Tala Sir Babe… ooh and just in time, I g2g. Ttfn!"

We walked away, all of us, excluding Tala and Kai, throwing the girl curious glances. Ha, and they though _I _was insane… do not say a thing.

* * *

Somehow, or rather, Tala knew which room we were in and so we once again entered in all of gloriousness-ness-ness… is that even a word? I swear people need to stop making up words that aren't words. They confuse me. Hmph.

"There, there Rei, you confuse us too," muttered Hilary from where she was standing next to me. Wind up, why is _she_ standing next to _me_? There is a serious problem with this arrangement. If she thinks she can get some of the Heart Reicer, she has another thing coming. I'm smoooooooooth.

I tried one of those slidy things on the wooden floors; you know where they skid on the ground with their arms out like a demented side step? Yeah those things… now did you notice the way I used the word tried? Very good, now use your imagination and imagine what happened.

"Rei Kon?" I looked up to find some chick's hand shoved in my face. She was dressed in a red sort of shaggy looking dress and it shimmered whenever she moved even just the slightest. She looked like she was ready to tango or something so I guessed she was the dance instructor.

"Y-yeah," I took her hand and she yanked me up with all the grace expected of a dancer.

Ok maybe we have eight or nine dance instructors. That works too. I did say I was bad at any form of sport, maybe someone told them and they thought they were going to need all the help they could get. I could not agree with them more.

There were three guys, the rest were girls, and they all looked ready to do the tango. They were wearing similar dresses to those of the girl who had helped me up and the guys were in tight pants and such. Mm, very smexy guys too. No Rei no! Kai, think only of Kai!

I turned to look at my personal gawking-worthy-model and sighed dreamily. Much better.

"Tala!" cried some girl as she walked confidently into the room, arms held wide.

Tala smirked, still not dropping the mask, and hugged the girl in greeting. "Stacey."

"How are you? Oh, I see you've brought me guests. Lovely. Oh, Kai, nice to see you again."

Kai bowed his head slightly in greeting, smirking. Stacey grinned happily and looked between the two of them.

"Aright," she said. "What's up? You know something I don't?"

Tala and Kai looked at each other, looked at Stacey and then said simultaneously… wait that does mean at the same time doesn't it? Well they said at the same time, "you've put on weight."

Stacey sighed. "Ah, I've missed my mentally delusional boys. You should know by now that _that_ is no way to greet a woman, especially one wearing stiletto heels. They're quite painful when the heel catches, you know?"

She walked over to the other dancers and said some technical dance-speak and turned on the music.

"Tala requested that we use the song It Had Better Be Tonight – also known as Meglio Stasera," she grinned again. Does this chick ever not smile, it's annoying me. "By Michael Buble, I'm sure you've heard of him."

One of the male dancers walked over, hand held out towards Stacey. She took it and he tugged her towards him, holding her to his chest. One of the other dancers restarted the song and the two began the dance.

They are insane. Truly, truly insane. They don't expect me to do that do they? It's impossible. Moreover, if they're expecting me to do it, I pray to the Lord that they aren't expecting the rest of my team, excluding Kai and maybe Hilary… hey where did Kenny go? Anyway, the rest of my team to do it, because they wont be able to. They will kill someone. There are important rules of life and one of them is don't let the dumber members of the Bladebreakers attempt any difficult ballroom dance as injuries will be inevitable.

Someone didn't learn the rules, obviously, because now Stacey is assigning partners to us. Psch… like I need a partner. Or is the tango made for two? I honestly can't remember.

"Stacey! It's cool, we've already decided partners," Tala explained hurriedly.

"Don't be silly," said Stacey as she pointed one of the dancers in Tyson's direction. I pity that dancer, I truly do. Wait, Kai is going to get some chick as a partner, and so am I. The whole plan was that I go with Kai! No, no, no! Not fair. I highly object.

Screw my objections then.

"I'm Jessica," the dancer greeted. Hi Jessica, do you really expect me to care what your name is? Because of you, I'm not with Kai!

I looked over at Kai, who was leaning against the wall, eyes closed. His partner looked a little lost and I almost laughed. Almost. No, I will laugh.

Ok, laughing done. How cute, they even have a partner for Annie Belle, the guys not the same age, he's the same age as the rest of the dancers, but Annie Belle looks like she's having fun… I wonder if she'll swap partners.

* * *

I am surprisingly good at this! I know, it's amazing and you don't believe me but I find that if I throw in a few of my cat skills and such, it really helps. Tala and Kai were, naturally, amazing at it. So fluid and they learnt the dance in like seconds.

Jesse was light on his feet, laughing and talking with his partner as they moved. Hilary was pretty good too, I had to give that girl some credit, and I mean she was helping to get me with Kai after all.

Diachi was completely overwhelmed by his partner, constantly looking up at her pretty face in awe. Max was having fun with his fellow blonde, as was Annie Belle and Tyson… well… Tyson was… I cannot believe I have to admit this but Tyson was good. All the kendo lessons from Gramps must have payed off because he moved pretty easily.

"Rei, Rei you're foot is squashing mine."

Oh. I looked down at my feet and sure enough, my foot was on top of Jessica's. "Sorry, got distracted."

"Its fine, honey. Let's try that part again."

Step, step, dip and sway and… and… what next. Jessica yelped as I dropped her, thinking of what was to come next. Step, step, dip and sway and then… oh! Pull up and twirl! I remember now.

"Jessica! I remember now! … Jessica?"

"Down here."

"Oh, god! Sorry, here let me help you up!"

I seized her wrist and yanked her up. You know, yanking her up with all my strength when she herself was already getting up, doesn't end too well, because now I have a brunette dancer in a very short pretty dress on top of me.

Jessica rolled off me with another sigh and smiled at me. "Another try sound good to you?"

I laughed and nodded. This was actually pretty fun.

* * *

Ok so just because I was somewhat good at ballroom dancing, does not mean I escaped unscathed. And my dance partner Jessica _definitely_ will not be dancing again within the next week. The amount of times I dropped her, stepped on her, let go of her while twirling her and she went slamming into the wall… yeah, I think she may have a few bruises. Still, the night was good fun.

"Hey," Hiro greeted as we walked through the front door. He leaned against the kitchen doorway and munched soundlessly on a celery stick covered in peanut butter. There was another one in his hand and he handed it to Kai wordlessly as my favourite Russian walked past the older Granger.

Seriously, where does Tyson get his (lack of) brains? His dad is a friggin archaeologist, or something like that, his brother is a genius and his grandfather is… a bit wacky in his old age, but very wise. So seriously, where did he get it?

We were all crowded in the lounge room, again, and Kai had mysteriously vanished, again. Nevertheless, he magically reappeared two minutes later with some weird looking pair of… scissors? In his hand.

"Oi Tala," he called, curling two fingers in one of the belt loops on his jeans to hitch them up his thin waist. God those jeans are tiny, and they're still too big for him? He needs to eat more. "Straighten it for me, will you?"

"Of course," Tala said, voice sing-songy like. He gestured for Kai to sit, plugged the weird scissor things in, and started 'straightening' or whatever Kai called it.

When done, Kai stood, tipped his head forward, ran his fingers through it and then… how cool!

The slate blue ran into the dark blue like streaks, and his hair was so damn _straight_! I wanna do that to my hair!

Kai said something about leaving to get changed, but I was too busy turning the 'scissors' over in my hands.

"Holy fuck that is hot!" I dropped the scissors and nursed my hand. Note to self, do _not_ touch the metal bit _ever_ again!

* * *

While my dear Kai was away at work, Tala introduced us to an interesting set of games. Rummikub, Boggle and we once again played that bubble game on the playstation.

**Problem one:** Rummikub requires maths and _thinking_, yeah, not good. To begin with, I had to bloody get up to _30_ to get on the table. At first I thought they literally meant 'get on the table' so Tala was very amused when I stood on the table. No, when they say get on the table, they mean your pieces thingies.

"Rei, that not even 20, let alone 30," sighed Tala as he pushed my pieces back towards me. Well damn it, everyone but me was on the table.

In the first round, Tala had opted not to play; instead, he showed everyone what to do as we had a practice game. However, if we had my way, it would have been a real game. And no it's not just because I won… ok so yeah it is but that's not my point here.

Now he still wasn't playing, but he only helped if we asked, and that was perfectly cool with me.

"Rummikub!" shouted Diachi, placing his last tiles on the table. We stared at him and Tala checked his holding-pieces-thing.

"I-it's empty," stuttered Tala, rubbing at his eyes and blinking as though to check his eyesight. "You won, Dia', and you did it with out my help… nicely done!"

"That's impossible!" cried Tyson. "I vote we play a new game, now! One that is impossible for _monkey-boy_ over there, to cheat at and therefore win."

And that was the end of Rummikub.

**Problem two**: in Boggle, my made up words are not allowed, neither is Chinese words. Well damn. Hey look! There's the word sex! Let's put that down. Ooh, there it is again. And there's fuck. That can go down… and… ass Wow, the words in this game are really weird. This can't be made for young children... is it really ok for Annie Belle to be playing this?

Afterwards, when we were checking our scores in whatever way we did it, Tala was once again very amused. "Out of all the words there, you come up with all the _colourful_ ones… and you managed to get the word sex seven times… there were quite a number of S's and E's in that one, I'll admit."

"Thinking of anyone in particular, Rei?" asked Tyson. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Annie Belle laughed. Wait, how the hell did she understand that?

"They look like caterpillars!" she cried. Ah, that makes more sense… you know she's right… they _do_ look like caterpillars, and very hairy ones at that.

"If you tilt your head and squint a little," said Max, doing what he was describing, "then they look like one giant worm."

Again, they do too.

**Finally, problem three:** I am apparently colour blind.

"How the hell did I end up with green?! Purple, _purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-plllllllllllllllllllllllllllle!_" I yelled at the screen. "Where did that yellow come from? Ah! I'm being attacked! Oh yeah, I so need red like a hole in the head! Ooh! It's purple! ...hey, where'd it go? It disappeared! And why the fuck is everything now grey?"

"You lost Rei," explained Max through fits of laughter.

"Well that just sucks, rematch… _now!_"

There was a knock on the door and with a sigh, I put the remote down and stood up to go answer it.

Turns out Hiro, who had just returned home from Brooklyn's place, had beaten me to it. "Uh, Tala? I think you might be needed. Ty, turn off the playstation and grab a couple of pillows."

Shooting his brother a confused glance, with Max and Diachi's help, Tyson did as Hiro asked.

I joined Tala and we stood at Hiro's side. There was a young looking blondie, Kai at his side. Kai's eyes were closed, his hands in fists.

"Kai?" Tala called softly. Kai's eyes shot open and he launched himself at Tala. Tala wrapped his arms around him, shocked as Kai kissed him then buried his face in the crook of Tala's neck.

"You're ok now," whispered Tala as he stroked Kai's hair and held him tighter. My heart twisted painfully. Never, never, _never_, had Kai initiated the kiss. What was going on?

"My name's Michael, I'm the manager at the club Kai works at –"

"Club?" I spluttered. "He's _17!_"

"I know. If you'll let me come in, I'll explain." The man smiled gently, apparently not affected by the scene of 'act two, scene six: Kai kisses Tala'.

"Yeah, come in," said Hiro, stepping away from the door. He shot me a warning look and nodded. What the fuck was that supposed to mean? I don't know any bloody fucking code! What the hell was going on?

* * *

Turns out the blankets and pillows weren't needed; Tala took Kai straight to the bathroom for a bath.

Therefore, the rest of us were all crowded in the lounge room, again. No one said anything until Tala finally joined us, his lips pulled into a snarl and his eyes narrowed. He sat down next to me and Michael started explaining.

"Kai's been working at the club for a year now. The boss was well aware he was underage, but Kai appealed to him and he was hired. I wont go into full length detail, it's not my story to tell," at this he glanced at Tala. "We were all taken to Kai like the owner was so we all kept an eye out for him. Club rules were changed and made stricter and Kai was perfectly safe.

"Tonight, it was weird. There was a huge mix up, one of the dancers fell sick and Kai offered to take his spot for the night. Some of the regulars, who are always there Sundays, were surprised to see Kai dancing. Nothing vulgar," Michael hurriedly explained when he saw our expressions. "Fully dressed, jeans and hoodies, and dancing hip hop. We respect our dancers and we protect them. We don't let them do anything stupid like other clubs. Kai went back to serving tables and such, it's a weird restaurant sort of club, and he was doing the regulars. They were drunk, forced themselves onto Kai. One of them managed to kiss him but then Nick slugged them each and he and Britt chucked 'em out. I drove him home."

Kai silently entered. His mask was colder than I had ever seen. He sat in Tala's lap and rested his head on the older Russian's chest. Tala grabbed one of the blankets and wrapped it around Kai's shoulders, and then hugged him protectively.

Michael stood to leave and dusted his pants off. He turned his attention to Kai. "It's up to you if you work tomorrow –"

"He'll be working tomorrow," growled Tala.

"Uh, ok. Well I've taken him off the roster for Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, and same with New Year's Eve and New Year's. Good night." And just like that, he left.

Tala waited for the sound of the car's motor disappearing before he opened his mouth and gave a frustrated yell.

"We're going to bed," he growled and dragged Kai out of the room. We stared at each other, completely silent. What now?

* * *

It only took fifteen minutes for Diachi, Tyson and Max to go totally hyper. It took another ten minutes for Tala to come in and yell at them.

"SHUT UP!" he roared. I shot up from my seat, hissing, and the Hyper Trio whipped around. None of us had noticed him being there. Tala was shaking with rage.

"Kai Hiwatari? That ring a bell to you at all? Captain? In the other room down the hall, _sleeping?!" _Tala marched into the room and glared us down. "Kai is currently having an absolutely hellish night, in case what Michael said meant nothing to you. Admittedly, a kiss isn't enough to freak Kai, but the amount of suppressed memories the kiss brought on is enough to frighten him. Do you even fucking care? You didn't know _where_ he worked… when did you actually find out he did work?"

I could feel Hiro's eyes on my back and I knew that it would be best if I handle this. Huh, _now_ I understand the code.

"We found out… two months ago," I replied quietly.

Tala threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, that's funny. You people really do not care. He's leaving."

"What?!" yelled Tyson.

"Oh you heard me you fucking retard," snapped Tala, heading for Kai's room. Tyson ran after him.

"Do you really think he will go _with_ you? Do you even _think_ we'll let him leave?"

"Of course he'll come with me. I've already talked to Spencer about it. He said he would book the plane tickets as soon as I asked." Tala grabbed a duffel bag from the top of Kai's wardrobe and started stuffing clothes in it.

Tyson snatched the bag off him and threw it on the ground. "He won't leave; he's petrified of you Tala."

"Wh-what?" I was thinking the same thing.

"When that whole thing with Bryan was happening, Kai was tense and making sure to keep some sort of distance from you without making it conspicuous. I don't know what was happening, or what usually happens, but Kai was scared.

"And earlier, when you were glaring Michael to death, Kai kept looking at your face and tensing, as if waiting for something bad to happen. He's not going to go with you Tala. He's scared of you, and I won't let him." With that, Tyson left the room.

Tala stared after him, completely shocked. Ty liked Hilary, and Hilary liked Kai. If Kai left, she'd be upset, so Tyson would do near anything to keep her happy. That and none of us wanted Kai to leave.

"Tala?" Kai sat up slowly and rubbed at his eyes. He took one look at us and the bag on the floor then turned to Tala. "What's going on? And who's leaving?"

Tala turned slowly away from the door, shaky. "N-nothing. Go back to sleep."

I pulled Max and Diachi from the room as Tala curled up with Kai.

* * *

It is half past twelve at night, I am drop dead tired, everyone else is in bed and I am still sitting in the kitchen. No lights, no nothing. I have stared at that interesting hedge for two hours now.

I watched silently as someone, Hiro judging by the height, walked in and got a class of water. He turned the lights on and turned around.

"Holy shit! Rei, you scared me," he exclaimed, holding a hand over his heart. "Cant sleep?"

I opened and closed my mouth. I knew I could trust Hiro. "It's not that I _can't_ sleep… it's that I don't _want_ to sleep."

Hiro smiled and sat across from me. "If Kai finds out you sat here all night, he aint gonna be happy."

I nodded slowly. He's right. "I'll sleep on the couch then."

Hiro laughed and stood. He placed the glass in the sink and headed over to the light switch, and paused. "Rei, just go. You're not getting any closer to Kai if you sleep on the couch. Remember how I said I saw his file? He needs this, go." Hiro switched the light off, and left, leaving me in the dark again… and in more ways than one.

* * *

I crept into the room. Ok, I can do this without turning the lights on. The bed is riiiiiiiight there.

Ok crap, I forgot the duffel bag was still there. I lay there, frozen to the spot and waiting. Good, I hadn't woken anyone up. Now if I can get my pj pants from under my pillow, I can go sleep in the guest room, seeing as Tala is currently sleeping with Kai.

I felt under the pillow. There they are! Ok, let's go.

"Rei?"

Ok, shit, guess that didn't work. "Hey Kai. Go back to sleep, I'm just grabbing something."

"Hurry up and come to bed." He patted the spot on the bed next to him and shifted out of Tala's grip so that he could sit up.

I hesitated but trotted over anyway. He lay back on his back and pulled me down, cradling my head to his chest. He ran his fingers through my hair and laughed. "You're an idiot, you know that?"

Yeah, I knew that. It was obvious wasn't it? I had fallen in love with someone who was clearly never going to feel the same for me.

* * *

**Well there you go, 5,633 words later, 9 friggin pages later and you get chapter... chapter... I think this is chapter 9, isn't it? Just think, this will all be finished in about 5 more chapters! Yay! And at this rate, there is still avery very very small chance that i may get the Chrissie chapter up in time. I have the next chapter, and then the Christmas chapter. I can do this!**

**And thank you, thank you, thank you THANK YOU, for the 13 reviews and... i forget how many faves and alerts. But seriously, thank you! I love the reviews! I use them to decorate my lonely Christmas tree... =P**

**I don't (company wise) own Boggle, Rummikub, When I Grow Up belongs to the Pussy Cat Dolls um... I think that is all.**

**Oh, and a warning; the humour may be pretty lacking within the next two chapters... not too sure. It's cos I'm finally getting to the main thing of the plot... I think. Wow, I am doing a lot of thinking, aren't I?**

**TTFN!**

**Kavbj**


	10. Screw Ups, Scars and Stupid Policies

**Ok so yeah, I sort of missed my Christmas deadline... and clearly there was no hope of making the New Years deadline so... I'M SORRY!! Blame.... blame... **_**ice cream cake!**_** We made one for Christmas and gosh, it was goo-ood! So yes, there you go, I was busy making then eating ice cream cake. =D**

**Thank you for the wonderful reviews (9 of them! Yay me!) and so sorry if I didn't reply to all of them... or any of them... but computer issues are a pain in the bum.**

**Merry Christmas! Happy Boxing Day =P Happy New Year!**

_

* * *

_

**Screw Up, Scars and Stupid Policies**

The next day was so uneventful, it was weird. Not that I really noticed, I sort of went through everything in some sort of daze. I did what I needed, when I needed, but otherwise stayed locked in the room I shared with Kai.

I drifted in and out of sleep, thoughts so stuck on Kai it was sad. I pictured what we could be, what could happen then reprimanded myself, because I _definitely_ knew now, that there was no hope. Kai would never feel the same. I don't know when the thought suddenly hit me, but it did, in the same way that my crush for Kai hit me. Now I was waiting for reality to hit, so I could get on with my life.

Hiro had been the only one in here, and he had only come in once to let me know that Tala was taking Kai out for the day. Let me pretend to care, will ya?

* * *

There was a knock at the door and I glanced at the clock. It was that late already?

I called come in, knowing it would be Kai coming to get ready for work. He looked at me silently and I stared back, waiting to see him walk over to the wardrobe, pull out the clothes he needed and then walk into the bathroom, and shut the door.

But he didn't. Instead he broke routine and walked over to the bed and sat down next to me. "What's up?"

I blinked a couple of times, and then rolled over so that my back faced him. I would ignore him.

Kai sighed. "Look Rei, I'm not totally sure as to why you're so mad with me. I'm sorry about last night. I know it was my fault and it was stupid of me to react like that and-"

"Whoa!" I exclaimed, cutting him off, as I rolled back over to face him. "Nothing about last night was your fault. It was those drunken retards, that's whose fault it was... not yours Kai."

He smiled softly. "Weakness." And then he got up, grabbed his clothes and went into the bathroom.

* * *

A few minutes later, I had Tala in my room. "Oi Rei! Get up! We need to get you dressed."

I groaned. "For _what?_"

"Well duh, aren't you coming with me to work with Kai?" Well that didn't sound confusing at all. I sat up and stared at him. Well shit. Looks like I'm going clubbing.

* * *

Kai left roughly an hour before we did and I used that extra hour to stay locked up in my room for a little while longer. The words that Tyson had said to Tala the night before raced through my head. What if Tyson was right? What if, for some reason, Kai _was_ scared of Tala when he was emotional? Tala was really worried when he had the fight or whatever with Bryan. Then last night, he was absolutely _furious_.

"_He's over protective of me, worried."_ What if tonight Tala got overprotective? **What the fuck had I gotten myself into?**

A knock on the door pulled me from my thoughts. I stood up to unlock the door but it swung open. A guilty looking Tala stood there and he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Sorry, I haven't had the chance to pick a lock in a _long_ time, and it's... kinda fun." He laughed good-naturedly and curled his tongue around his bright pink lollipop. I could smell it from here; watermelon.

I stared at Tala and his face slowly fell. He cocked his head to the side. "I _would_ say 'cat got your tongue' bu-ut..."

I laughed and smiled. Tyson was insane; there was nothing wrong with Tala.

* * *

I peered up out of the front window as we pulled up at the club. Tala turned the car off and looked as well.

"Shake It Up? _That's _the name of the club?"

Tala laughed and got out the car. "Yeah, the owner's son named it. He was 13. He died of cancer two weeks before the club was opened. The owner put the opening off and renamed the club."

I nodded slowly. Oh, I get it now. "That's why the boss took to Kai so easily... he reminded him of his son, didn't he?"

Tala smiled at me and I knew that was a yes.

"Come on, let's go!" he exclaimed, tugging me towards the entrance. Ok, Tala? Yeah, _my arm is attached!_ Ow, ow, ow, ow, o-_he-__**llo**_!

I love this place already. Great uniform choice as well... yeah, great choice. Kai looks goo-ood! Wait Rei, you are over him, _over_ him... ok I can be 'over him' tomorrow.

Music pounded throughout the club and my eyes flickered over everything. This place was really cool. Actually, why hadn't we been stopped by security yet? Like I care... I bet I just jinxed us and pretty soon, we'll have 8 foot 10 buff men on our tails. Great Rei.

Kai looked over and smiled. His eyes glanced over to a table to his left. He looked at Tala again and nodded slightly.

"That's them," muttered Tala. His blue eyes narrowed and his face fell. Slowly, his lips pulled into a snarl and he growled.

There were three of them, all of them looking to be in their mid-forties. One was fat, bald and sweating like a pig. Another was skinny and fidgety and the other was what one would consider normal compared to the other two. He leaned back in his chair, eyes following Kai.

"Why the hell are they still here?" growled Tala. His hands were twitching, his body shaking. I took a step back. M-maybe, this is what Tyson was talking about.

"_Tala's unpredictable, so unlike you, he may get more than just annoyed. And I'd like to live to see past 25." _And maybe this is what Kai was talking about... and I really did not want to find out firsthand how unpredictable Tala was.

I placed a hand on his arm and called his name softly. "Calm down. You're gonna blow a fuse."

He relaxed, still staring. Suddenly he turned to me, smiling. "Let's dance!"

Oh, hehe, cool... _shit!_

* * *

Two hours zoomed right by. Kai could dance, that was for sure. If they weren't on the stage, they were still dancing. The employees I mean. Even the waiters, which Kai was tonight, had a routine for nearly every song. It was really cool.

"Tala!" Tala stopped laughing and dancing, and turned to see who had called him. It was Michael and some rich looking old man.

"Tala, this is the boss."

Tala's blue eyes slid over the man, mask up so quickly and cleanly I would not have even known he'd been smiling earlier if I hadn't been with him. "..sir." a small incline of the head and a cross of the arms.

"Mr Tala Ivanov," the man turned to me. "And Rei Kon if I am correct?"

I nodded, clenching a hand in the back of Tala's shirt as a warning.

Tala didn't seem to listen, or notice, the warning. He snarled at the man. "Why are those fucking idiots still here? I thought they were kicked out."

The man took no notice of Tala's friendly language. "Kicked out, but not banned. If they try anything tonight, they will be."

"Good. Let's go Rei, I need to talk to Kai." Ok Tala, what did I tell you about my arm being _attached_?!

* * *

By the time the 40-year-old freaks made a move, I was near dead on my feet. If it weren't for Britney Spears' Circus blaring through the club, and Kai's delicious dance moves, I think I could quite comfortably fall asleep on the floor.

"Ok seriously, you need to _back off_! I think you're a little drunk sir." Wait! That's Kai's voice!

He was trying to yank his hands free from the tight grip of the drunken fat 40 year old. Tala was there before I could even blink.

"Are these your hands?" he asked, placing a hand on the guy's forearm.

The guy squinted at him and nodded. "Yeaaaaah," he slurred.

Tala nodded as though he were contemplating something. "Huh... good." And with that, he punched the guy then drew Kai against him. His left foot lashed out, kicking Fatso's friend, Skinny, as he ran towards Tala.

I joined them and Kai smiled at me. I really wish he would stop doing that because it sends my heart racing every time.

Kai sighed. "I'll have you know, _Tals_, that they were very respected and liked by many of the other regulars... and we may just have a fight on our hands."

"Fun," came a voice from behind us.

"Ah, Nick, I see you're willing to join... shall we?" asked Kai, smirking and pushing me behind him.

And as if on cue, a hell of a lot of angry men came at Tala.

As Tala, Nick and Kai swerved and fought, I couldn't help but think that this couldn't be good for business. However, the fight seemed to be less serious with a lot of them, because there were a lot of smiles and laughs. Weird. I managed to steal a look at the third forty-year-old man, the relatively normal one. His eyes once again were glued to Kai, but he didn't move from his seat.

Kai's hand stayed on my shoulder constantly. Never knew he could get protective... not that I'm complaining, hehe, me likey.

Suddenly Kai gasped and his hand slipped down my arm, his fingers quickly linking with my own. "Rei!" he choked and I was pulled down with him.

Kai was lying on his back, staring up at my face. I was on all fours, nose almost brushing his. Ok, you know I really wish that I were on all fours and over the top of him, not going in opposite direction to him. Therefore, it sort of went Kai's feet, stomach, face, my face, body, and feet. Grr...

I looked for what had pulled Kai down. Wrapped around his ankle was the hand of the relative normal 40 year old. He grinned down at Kai and crawled forward so that he was in the position I had wished to be in (you know, it would have made the _perfect_ kissing opportunity... double grr...) and ran a finger along Kai's jaw.

"Uh, I don't think so!" I exclaimed and shoved him off Kai.

Kai rolled, taking me with him. I ended up under him and he pulled himself into a crouch.

"ENOUGH!" roared the boss... whose name I couldn't remember? Oops?

The laughter and yelling stopped, and so did the (mostly) playful fighting. He walked over to the three 40-year-old men. "You three are banned from this club for the next month. Now get out."

The relatively normal 40-year-old stood and dusted himself off. "Well, wait until the cops hear about how your staff treated us."

The boss grinned. "Oh? Do any of you have a problem with what happened?"

There was a collective cheer from the customers and staff. The boss's grin widened. "I'd take that as a no. Nick? Michael? Show these men out will you."

* * *

We stumbled through the entrance of the dojo laughing. Kai was already pulling his uniform shirt off, leaving him bare-chested. No drooling, no drooling, no drooling, no drooling – SHIT! I'm drooling.

Tala bid us good night as we entered our room. Kai flopped down on the bed and watched me with those crimson eyes as I stripped to my boxes and pulled on a pair of sweat pants. I turned to him. "You changing?"

He shook his head no and wriggled under the covers, letting them sit messily around his waist.

Ok then... I joined him, but remained sitting against the headboard. Kai pulled himself up and looked at me.

"...thank you, Rei. For tonight, I mean... thank you."

I smiled and nodded. It was times like this when I knew _exactly _why I had fallen (so terribly hard... and stupidly) for Kai Hiwatari. The blood pounded in my ears as I leant forward towards him. If I can just kiss him, I can get this all over with and move on with my life... if I can just...

"What are you doing?" asked Kai, scurrying backwards. He got out of bed and backed away a few steps.

I followed him. "No, Kai, wait. Just let me... look." I stood in front of him. "Please, just..."

Now or never. I pressed my lips to his and he froze. When I wasn't pushed away, I kept going.

HOLY SHIT! Kai stomped on my foot, elbowed me in the gut and bit down on my lip. I pulled away, gasping. Ok, that _really _hurt!

I looked up in time to see Kai disappearing around the corner. With a sigh, I sat down on the bed. Could I screw my life up much more?

* * *

"Why the fuck has my best friend just come to me looking like he's seen a ghost?!" yelled Tala.

My head shot up. When had he gotten there? "I-I kissed him..."

Tala faltered and his face twisted. "Rei... could you be more stupid? _Now_ of all times? God! I swear... argh!" and he stormed off.

I leaned my head on my knees, pulling them in tighter to my chest. He was right; _could_ I be more stupid?

There was another weight on the bed and I waited for the person to speak. _Please_ don't be Tyson!

"You ok?"

Oh thank the lord, it's Hiro. "Yeah, I guess." I looked at him. "What have I done... _how do I fix this?!_"

Hiro smiled gently. "That's up to you... look; this should mostly blow over tomorrow. There shouldn't be too much drama. And I don't think Kai would have reacted so violently but after last night and then tonight... god, Rei, now of all times, was not the best." He watched me, waiting for a reaction. Sighing, he bid me good night and left.

I lay back down and stared at the ceiling. My eyes watered and a sob broke free of my lips. Fuck life, and _fuck __**love**__!_

* * *

Just as Hiro had told me, the next day, things were pretty calm. I wasn't even sure my team _knew_ what _had_ happened. Nevertheless, I don't think they could miss the tension in the air. Seriously, why had I gotten up? Oh yeah, I remember now!

'M not getting up. 'M not getting up. 'M not- "Rei! Breakfast is ready and _I_ can't eat til _you_ get up! So hurry up, dude!"

Fuck you and your stomach Tyson!

And so yes, now I am awake and avoiding every pair of eyes... well just a pair of icy blue and another pair of crimson.

I just realised... _it's fucking Christmas Eve! Holy shit!_ Oh well if things stay the way they are then tomorrow is going to be _great_. Yes, that was sarcasm, very good for noticing.

* * *

Around midday, all the tension disappeared thanks to my lovely dear blonde American friend, Paris Hilton. You were expecting Max weren't you. Haha! I was right... ok, so yeah it was Max, I just wanted to see your reactions.

We were lounging in the lounge room –hey! That's almost like play playstation! Moving on. When he walked in.

"Kai?"

Kai looked over to the blonde and nodded.

"I-I'm really sorry but, your Mum's vase... well we were playing and I... please don't be mad!" he exclaimed, holding his hands out in front of him to show he meant no harm... or maybe it was a 'please don't hurt me' sort of way...

"Max..." started Kai, standing slowly. "Your hands... come on, let's go clean them up. And I'm not mad. The real one is in a bank somewhere. I put it there after it was nearly broken the _first_ of a _hundred_ times."

I think I had better help with this. So I unwillingly followed Max and Kai into the kitchen. Oh great, Max's hands are dripping blood all over the place. Yay! More for me to clean up!

As if reading my thoughts, Max looked at me apologetically as Kai sat him down. "I'm sorry Rei, I promise I'll clean it up... and I'll clean up the broken not-the-actual-vase, I swear!"

"Don't worry Maxie," I said, ruffling his hair. "It's fine. Kai's right, let's clean up your hands, hey?" Aw look at me! I am so sweet, and kind, and nice, and- last night suddenly came back to me and I sighed. And so _stupid!_

"Hey Kai, wha-" Tala stopped dead in his tracks as he entered the kitchen. He had been in the guest room looking for something. He looked at Max's hands, groaned, "aw shit!", and then grabbed the doorframe as his knees buckled and he slid to the ground.

Kai took a glance at him then focused on Max's hands again. "Rei, get him to a chair will you, please? Thank you."

I was almost tempted to glare but did as asked either way. Today was supposed to be the day I got 'over him' but so far, as I'm sure is obvious, no luck.

Once seated, Tala shuddered and gripped at the table, knuckles white.

"Are you going to explain, or me?" asked Kai, not moving his attention from what he was doing. I envy Max. I so wish I were the one Kai was paying so much attention to. No Rei! _No!_ You are o-ver him!

"Uh..."

Kai sighed. "You know they're only going to ask."

"You then, please," Tala replied quietly.

"He's terrible with blood."

"But he grew up in the Abbey," said Tyson, as he, Diachi, Hilary, Kenny and Hiro entered the kitchen. Great, the whole entourage.

Kai hissed, slicing himself with the scissors and Tala growled, low and threatening.

"And just what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

"It's just..." Tyson sighed. "Nothing, continue."

"Look it wasn't until I lost to Spencer, Bryan lost to Kon and Tala lost to you that it happened. You have _no _idea what goes on inside that place. I have never seen so much blood from one beating... The night after the tournament, when I 'disappeared', where the hell did you think I was? Visiting the circus? No!" Kai turned away from Max, clearly angered by Tyson's statement. He lifted his shirt and I blanched. Oh god no... How could we not have noticed _that_ before?

"I was _busy_ getting your _names_ carved into my _skin_. Rei on the bottom left rib, Max on the right and Tyson across the middle. Then the name 'Bladebreakers' goes from my left shoulder, across my collar bone, and to my right shoulder. I couldn't forget you, even if I _wanted_ to. And you think _I _got it bad. Ha! Fucking Boris th-"

Tala swiftly directed us to another subject. He stood, grabbing my shoulder as he swayed. "Thanks," he said to me and smiled. "Now, Kai, I have something very important to ask you."

"What?" Kai snarled viciously, hands clenched into fists and teeth grinding. I have never seen him so angry. Wanna see a hot, angry Kai? Call Tyson Granger on... actually, what is the number of this place? Ignoring the fact I live here, I can't believe I _don't know._

Tala shot him a warning look and Kai sighed. Tala continued. "Well, I wanna know if you've bought your decoration."

Decoration? Ok then. Kai faltered and grimaced. "...no...? Look, I haven't had time. I've been busy with these losers-" hey! No fair! "And Rei" oh, ok, that's better. "So I haven't gotten it yet."

Tala grinned. "Thought so. Have you done it with them?"

"Never thought of it. You don't know what they're like. I'm not willing to let them in _that_ much."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You know you love 'em. Well that's where we shall go. Everyone, JACKETS!" Tala headed to the front door and with a sigh, Kai finished bandaging Max's hands.

Tala paused and looked at Kai again. "And why aren't those covered up? Is your back? Let me see. Shirt off, now."

Oh, thank you Tala. Off, off, off, off, off, SQUEAL!!

My eyes were immediately dragged to my name scarred onto his skin. I'm sure the rest of my team were looking.

"Turn," demanded Tala. Kai hesitated and Tala sighed. "They've seen the front, bring on the back."

Kai turned slowly. Oh, ok then... _huh_. Matching scars maybe? Tala right shoulder, Bryan left. Spencer right hip, Ian left. Then from his neck down to the small of his back, Demolition was running down his spine.

Tala sighed. "You covered everything else up, and not those?"

"I ran out!" protested Kai. What were they talking about?

"You can use some of mine," offered Hilary. Kai nodded.

Tyson turned to her, eyebrow raised. I snorted; he looks weird when he's serious.

"You knew about this?" he asked.

Hilary nodded and walked over to Kai. She ran her fingers down the Demolition scar and Kai hissed. He dragged his fingers up his arms as his muscles tensed, leaving red lines.

"Come on," said Hilary. "The others will grab your stuff; I'll help you cover them."

Why do I always seem to miss the important things? Those scars have been there for more than 2 years and I didn't fucking notice! What else has Kai been hiding that has been so painstakingly obvious?

* * *

Ok, I am not going to go into the details of our 'decoration shopping' because they are horrendous and painful. (I bought 10 because I broke them all. Kai bought twelve. One for him, me and then the _other_ 10 I broke... I think you get the picture that it was a very interesting shopping experience. Stupid 'you break it, you buy it' policy. Grr...)

What happens is, every year, my favourite Russians by a decoration. They have a huge collection of them. Tala thought we should start doing it as well. He said that when you move away from each other, you 'd have that to remember each other as well as your own set of decorations that are personal and special to you. I liked the idea. Know what I got? This cool decoration that's supposed to look like a stalactite, but it's made up of hearts, stars, and things. I know it ain't very Christmas-y but guess what the colours are?! Crimson, gold and white! I know, I know! I'm still hopelessly hooked on him! Great, isn't it?! Not.

Kai looked at me, cheek resting on his hands, his fingers toying with the edges of the pillow. "Are you mad?"

I hesitated. "About... what, exactly?"

"That I didn't tell you guys about your names being encrypted on my torso." Did he _have_ to put it so bluntly?

"Oh... I don't think any of us are mad... I think it's just, well," I sat up and fidgeted with the blankets. "Well you trusted Hilary and told her and not us!" I blurted.

"I know, and I'm sorry. So, so, sorry. You guys weren't meant to find out like that. I was just _so fucking mad with that __**pig!**_ ...but I needed to tell Hilary because I needed to cover them up. We split up after the first tournament so I didn't need to worry about you guys seeing them. But then the second tournament... and she _is_ a girl, a very annoying one, but still a girl so I think she would know best about makeup and shit. Tell me, could you tell what minerals and shit is and isn't good, and what tone I need and what –"

"I get the point," I said with a laugh, sliding back under the covers. Did I happen to mention that by the time we got to the heavily packed shops that everything had blown over and it was as though nothing had ever happened? Well I did now! ...Smile?

"It's Christmas tomorrow," Kai grunted as he rolled onto his back.

Oh my god! He's right! _**MAJOR SQUEAL!**_

"Shit! My ears! Rei-ei! I'm gonna kill you!"

"Oh crap, sorry Kai! Please don't kill me! It's Christmas tomorrow! At least let me get my presents first...?"

* * *

**Haha aren't you proud of me?! **

**Well TTFN**

**Kavbj**


	11. Christmas

**_Christmas_**

OH MY FUCKING LORD! IT IS _CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER-__**RISTMAS!**_

There was a banging at our door and I sat up bolt right, already feeling under my pillow for the clothes that I had placed there so I could get ready quickly. Damn! I should have just slept in them.

"Rei! Kai! Merry Christmas!" yelled Max, Tyson and Diachi as they fell into the room.

Kai groaned, rolled over onto his stomach and shoved his head under the pillow.

I poked him in the side. "Aw, _come on!"_

The Evil Trio ran over to the bed and attempted to drag Kai out of bed. As the pillow was pulled from his grip, I caught sight of the smirk on his face before he covered his face with his hands and kicked at the boys. "All right, _all right!_ I'm coming," he laughed, sitting up and shoving the others off him.

Max and Tyson dragged him up, shoving him towards the wardrobe where Diachi was rummaging for a new set of clothes for Kai to put on.

Kai had only half buttoned up his shirt when he was dragged from the room. I laughed and chased after them, having finally found my own clothes.

The first thing we were greeted with when we entered the living room was a smiling Tala. He kissed Kai then stepped out of the way, revealing the rest of the room.

...So...many... _**PRESENTS!! SQUEAL!**_

"Rei!" snapped Kai. "What did I tell you about the squealing?!"

Ok, sorry Kai, but I don't really care right now... I mean there's just _so many_ of them!

The Evil Trio and I rushed forward, completely ignoring Hiro, Hilary and Kenny. I picked one up and shook it. Flicking my eyes over the tag, I saw it was from Tala.

**Proper way to open a present:** avoid all sticky tape, as it tends to stick to things, things you do not want sticky tape to be stuck too.

Glance at wrapping paper, say how nice it is, and then ... RIP IT!

"Oh my... thank you so-o-o-o much Tala!" I hugged him tightly before glancing at the brand new camera in my hand. I saw there was a sticky note attached and ripped it off.

_Just think... you can take so many pictures when my dear best friend comes to his senses... love you, and thank you for everything, Tala_

I grinned. So many pictures indeed... mwahahahahahahahaha... huh, I didn't choke this time. Told you working on my evil laugh would help.

"Stop!" yelled Tala.

We froze and looked up at him. He yanked Kai from the couch via his wrist and planted him in front of the tree... haha, get it? Planted? Tree? That's funny, god I'm good.

Telling Kai to stay, Tala disappeared around the back of the tree and emerged again, grunting as he shoved a box forward. He repeated the motion another two times then came to stand by Kai, beaming. The Evil Trio, Hiro, Hilary, Kenny and I joined them.

"...wow..." commented Tyson, cocking his head to the side.

Tala nudged Kai forward. "Well go on then, open them!"

Kai looked at Tala as though to ask 'are you crazy?' then sighed and pulled the wrapping from the first box.

"Air holes? What'd you get me? A Great Dane?" Kai asked as he pulled the flaps open on the box. He peered inside and burst out laughing.

"What? What is it?" Max asked excitedly. Yes, what the hell was it? Very few things could get Kai to laugh like that. My stupidity happened to be one of them! What? There has to be _some_ bright side to Tyson's infectious idiocy.

Kai shook his head and clutched as his sides. He wiped his eyes and reached an open hand into the box. Next thing I knew, he was helping _Spencer_ out of the box.

Ok my reaction? "WHAT THE FUCK?"

I turned to Tala but he ignored me, urging Kai to open the next box.

Kai hugged Spencer and then reached for the second box.

Before Kai could even open the flaps, something small jumped up. "DUDE!"

Kai blinked and then laughed. "DUDE!" he repeated then helped Ian out. Two Russians down, one to go... oh _god_ no...

The first thing we heard as Kai opened the flaps on the box was a hell of a lot of swearing. Bryan stood up, large bow tied around his neck and confetti sticking to him everywhere.

"Why the _fuck_ did _I _have to wear the bow? And there's all this fucking confetti shit!" Bryan ran his fingers through his hair, dislodging some of the pieces. He glowered at Kai. "You'd better appreciate this Hiwatari," he warned.

Smiling, Kai rolled his eyes, nodded and helped the older Russian out. Bryan dusted himself off then looked up. His pale eyes looked around the room and... Duck, duck, duck, duck Rei! God, do not let him see you! Shit, too late.

Bryan stared at me, running his eyes up and down me. Ok... how should I deal with this... oh I know... I'll get down on my knees and beg!

Kai took a couple of steps back and stood in front of me. "Bry..."

Tala stepped up in front of Bryan and bit his lip. "Bryan... don't..."

Bryan's hand curled into a fist and his other one clenched in the fabric of his pants. He forced his gaze over to Tala. "_You!_" he growled at the redhead.

Tala nodded slowly, confused. "Yes... _me._"

"This was all _your_ idea!"

"Ye-ah... oh shit." And Bryan lunged.

* * *

Kai and Tala had just gone to take the other Russians' stuff (which Tala had hidden in the linen cupboard) to the guest room, when the doorbell rang.

I got up to answer it, wondering just who the hell would be ringing our door? I mean it was Christmas, I wouldn't be going round knocking on someone's door on Christmas so who was knocking on _our_ door... at _Christmas?!_

I opened the door and I swear my jaw just made contact with Bob. Ok then... what the _fuck?!_

"Hey Rei, who – oh wow... _wow_, that's... interesting..." Hilary appeared behind me, looking our guest up and down with a sceptical eye. "We've got a guest!" she called to the others.

"Who?" Tyson called back.

I finally found my voice. "M-Mariah?"

She licked her lips and grinned seductively at me. Behind her I could see a bright pink suitcase... she was planning to stay... _**here?!**_

She was holding her long trench coat open revealing her... oh wow, amusing outfit. She had knee high white socks, a plaid pink skirt that was so short it covered next to nothing and then a skimpy matching shirt, which revealed a lot of midriff, and a hell of a lot of cleavage.

Mariah tossed her hair and cocked a hip to the side. "Rei-Rei..." she purred. I think... I'm gonna be sick.

"Mariah what are _doing_ here? And dressed like _that_?!" I asked.

She closed her jacket and grinned. "I'll explain later but can I –what the hell are _they _doing here?" she demanded, grabbing her suitcase and pulling it up next to her.

I peered behind me to find the Russians in the corridor behind me.

Bryan rolled his eyes and walked into the lounge room, sarcasm dripping from his voice as he replied, "planting daisies, breeding squirrels and sipping tea while waiting for you, bitch."

Mariah scowled and barged pass me. She walked into the lounge room and I hurried after her. "Mariah! Wait!"

Because she hadn't done up the buttons or tie on her coat, it flew open revealing her outfit to everyone. I groaned.

"Shit!" swore Tyson, covering his eyes. He removed his hands and quickly covered Diachi's instead. Max's gaze went straight to the floor, Kenny found his hands very interesting and Hiro sighed and closed his eyes.

And the Russians just stared. Not in a perverse sort of way they just... stared. Ian started laughing and pointed at Mariah. "When did you become a stripper?!" he cried between his laughter. Spencer hit him over the head and hissed something to him in Russian.

Tala sat down with a sigh and curled his tongue around his lollipop, completely ignoring Mariah as he started up a casual conversation with my team.

Mariah stalked up to Bryan after shoving her suitcase to me (and thankfully buttoning up the coat) and placed her hands on her hips. "So what brings assholes like you to Japan?"

"Oh dear, Kai, we have a problem!" cried Bryan in mock shock.

Kai smirked. "Aw, is the poor wittle pwincess upset that she won't get poor Rei-Rei all. To. Her-selllllf?"

Bryan started laughing. "I think she is Kai," he agreed while the two of them started circling her like a pair of sharks.

"Whatever shall we do?" asked Kai, putting a finger to his lips in thought and looking up at the ceiling. His eyes slid to Mariah and he smirked. She sneered back and her fangs slipped over her bottom lip.

"Apologise?" Suggested Bryan,

"Terrorise?" The pair laughed.

Mariah licked her lips nervously, eyes following them. She looked over at me pleadingly. Let her suffer or help her out... nah; this is too much fun to watch.

"Negotiate?"

"Celebrate." Kai said sarcastically and Bryan hissed excitedly.

They stopped moving and looked at each.

"Kill!" they yelled, and lunged forward. Mariah screamed and closed her eyes.

Bryan and Kai started laughing and plopped down on the couch. Mariah pried her eyes open and glared at them. They hadn't even touched her.

Hahahahahaha... that was _so_ cool. I left Mariah's suitcase where it was and walked over to her.

"Mariah, why are you here?" asked Hiro.

"To see Rei," and you know what she did? She hugged (suffocated) me! Grr... Bitch. She pointed at the Russians. "Don't ask why _I'm_ here, why are _they_ here?"

"We're here to see Kai," Bryan replied boredly, tipping his head back to rest against the back of the couch. He traced the cracks in the ceiling with his finger.

Mariah snorted. "Who comes to visit a bastard like him?" she turned to a fuming Tyson. "You let him _live_ here? And then you let his bastard-friends _stay_ here?"

I cut in before this could get any worse. "Mariah, go get changed, will you? You look like a whore and you're gonna freeze."

She stared at me in shock. Wonder why? Huh. Nevertheless, she grabbed her suitcase and I directed her to the bathroom.

I sighed gratefully when she left and turned to see the other occupants of the room. I hate her, I really do. We were having such a good day and she totally killed the mood.

"We'll finish presents later," said Tala, standing and glaring after Mariah. "I'll start getting lunch ready."

"We're gonna need extra chairs then!" exclaimed Tyson, getting over the whole 'Mariah' thing as quickly as I wished I could get over it. "Come on Max, Diachi, we're going... _chair hunting! Dun-dun-du-u-u-u-u-un!"_

* * *

With Bryan's help (holy shit, I know), I pushed up a small table I found in the garage against the dining table. It only seated so many, 11 or so was _too_ many.

Tyson and Max had been in out with different sized chairs, and Diachi had been dusting them down. The poor guy was sneezing like mad... hang on, give me a minute to get sympathetic... nuh, it just ain't working.

Bryan stared at me then shook his head. "So this is what they were talking about when they said you had a habit of 'talking aloud'," he muttered.

He handed me one corner of the tablecloth and on the count of three, we started at one end and ran it up to the other end. It fit, just.

He smirked at me as I did my little victory dance. We'd tried so many different cloths and _finally_ found one that fit.

Kai, Spencer and Tala were working in the kitchen. I had no idea as to what the hell was on the menu (ignore the fact that I have already been told over four times) but it smelt goo-oo-_ood!_

Hiro and Hilary were sorting out the music and Kenny was going around videoing everything. It was really fun having everyone here. Ok screw that, Mariah just walked in.

She looked around, pink sweater clad arms crossed. She walked over to me and glared at Bryan. He looked at me, her, laughed and walked over to help Tala prepare the ham.

I grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off to the side. "Why are you here?"

"I'm your Christmas present!" she beamed at me. Greaaaaaaaat... can I get a refund? I love Mariah like a sister... kind of, sort of... actually I got so fed up with her me-before-the-world attitude that I think I sort of ended up hating her guts when I realised how great it was being on a team that she wasn't in.

Before I could ask her anything else, like why she was dressed as she was when she had arrived, Ian ran in.

"Kai! Look, we brought your guitar!"

Kai looked up, brow furrowed. "Are you _serious_?" he took the instrument from Ian and slowly smiled.

"_You_ play _guitar?_" asked Mariah, nose crinkling. I sighed. Great, here she goes. Again. You get used to it after a while.

"_You're_ a _girl?!_" came the reply from the _whole_ of the Blitzkrieg Boys, Kai included. Mariah scowled and I hid a smile behind my hand.

"Play something!" exclaimed Hilary from where she was sitting with Hiro, a box of cd's in front of her.

Kai sat down and strummed a few chords. He looked up at Bryan, surprised. "You tuned it."

Bryan shrugged and glanced over at Spencer. "Spencer helped, but yeah, I did."

Kai smiled. "Thanks, Bry. And Spence." Spencer grunted, busy cooking whatever it was.

"You have to sing as well!" said Tala just as Kai was about to play something. Kai looked horrified but nodded.

I grabbed a seat; I had to see/hear this. Anything Kai does is amazing, look it up, it even says it in the bible! On the other hand, maybe that's just our bible...

"A life goes by, romantic dreams will stop.  
So I bid mine goodbye and never knew so close was waiting, waiting here with you.  
And now forever I know, all that I wanted was to hold you, so close."

Encore, encore. I clapped wildly, and as always, so did the rest of my eccentric team.

Kai surprised us all by thrusting the guitar towards Bryan. "Your turn."

Bryan opened his mouth, hesitating. He turned his head away. Behind him, I saw Tala's smile drop away. He crunched down on his lollipop. "Don't even bother Kai," he said quietly, glaring at Bryan.

"Oh wow, you're even bastards to each other," muttered Mariah from where she had sat herself in a pink beach chair. Can I kill her? Like, now? Thank you.

Bryan smirked and walked over to her. He leaned down so that he was eye level with her. "Nah, just to bitches like you. It's rather entertaining. You have to be good for something, don't you Mariah, even if it is our mild entertainment, _s-lut_." His tongue rolled over the last word easily and smoothly, purposefully enunciated perfectly. He licked his lips and grinned nastily. "Hurry up and run on home, cat-girl."

Wow, he really has to give me lessons because Mariah is so red with rage she looks like she's going to explode. It's really quite a funny sight.

* * *

"It's lunch time!" called Tala. I looked up from where I was mucking around with my new camera and beamed at the others.

"Let's go, let's go, _let's go!_" Tyson yelled excitedly, jumping up from his seat and skidding along the wooden floor on his socks. He grabbed the edge of the doorframe to stop himself and grinned at us as we walked past him.

I ended up next to Kai and Max. Couldn't complain really, just as long there isn't too much sugar in dessert, then it could become disastrous.

Kai got up briefly to help Tala, leaving a gap that lead to Spencer. He smiled gently at me and asked how I was going,

I shrugged, "ok I guess." My eyes must have flickered over to Kai because Spencer smirked and looked at his teammate.

"Yeah," he said. "Tala's been keeping us rather up to date." Oh well great, who knows what that crazy redhead's been saying?

Kai returned to his seat, Tala sat down next to Bryan and lunch began. Ok, almost began because Mariah made everyone stop for a second so that she could swap seats with Max, and Max being the good (idiot) Samaritan that he is, agreed. So now, I'm sitting next to Kai, and, oh bloody hell, _Mariah._ _Then_ lunch began.

Tala snatched the plates off the Russians, heaping them up with food, much to Bryan's obvious disgust. "I'll be lucky to eat anything at all, and he thinks I'm going to eat all of that?" he muttered.

Kai was staring at Mariah, briefly glancing at Tala as his plate was placed in front of him again. Did he just blanch? Oh wow, that is a lot of food... the last time Tyson tried to force Kai to eat that much, my poor Russian hottie was throwing it all back up ten minutes later.

You know, girls are a funny species. They pretend to get along, making 'friendly' conversation, while glaring at each other behind their backs. Well Mariah, I must admit, was a delusional fool, because she was always saying how well she and Hilary got along when Hilary, putting it simply, hates Mariah's very being. Funny, isn't it?

I will tell you what's also funny. Gravy. Because it feels horrible and sticky when you get it all over you. Wanna know how I got it all of me?

Recap! "Rei, can you pass me the gravy?" Mariah asked.

"Mm-hmm" I replied, not really hearing her as I was too busy staring at Kai as he smiled and laughed with the Russians. Gosh, he's so beautiful! Aren't I lucky to have him as a soon to be boyfriend? I can't believe I was going to give up on him! Am I insane?!

"Uh, Rei, careful, you've sort of got it at a tilt... Rei?"

Yeah, whatever Mariah. I moved my arm towards her and she shrieked.

I turned hurriedly, jerking my arm back and splattering gravy all over myself. Gross! Mariah stood, gravy spilled all down her shirt and lap. Oops, did I do that?

Hilary burst out laughing, shaking so hard, she was practically convulsing... actually what does that word mean exactly? Kenny used it once referring as to how... something one of the beyblades was and I always presumed it meant shaky. I'm right, aren't I. Oh you know I am!

So yes, Mariah left to change, letting us talk more openly while I sat there, covered in gravy. Oh great, I even managed to get it in my fucking hair. Do you know what? I even managed to get some on Kai, that's how bad it is. It's smeared down his right arm and his cheek is red raw from where he rubbed it off.

I am good, aren't I? I, the Rei Kon, the great one, am the only one in the whole fucking _world_ who would be able to pull this stunt off! God, I am _excellent!_ Screw good, _**excellent!**_

* * *

Lunch took a while and then there was dessert, so by the time we got back into presents it was well into the afternoon.

Kai had disappeared to go grab the presents he had gotten for us and I was once again stuck sitting next to Mariah.

"Why were you dressed like a first degree slut?" I hissed at her, keeping my eyes on the doorway and awaiting Kai's heroic return.

"Because I've tried everything else to try and get your attention and nothing worked. So I thought I'd try to appeal to your lower brain," and she gestured to between my legs.

Ok then, second question. "Wha- Kai!"

Kai nodded, eyebrow raised. "Yeah... Kon maybe I should have looked into getting you a brain transplant."

Haha, he is _so_ funny, don't you think? I know how to pick 'em.

He handed the presents out. A new upgrade program for Kenny, a VIP Tour at some chocolate factory for Max, this huge photo frame with all the pictures from Tyson's matches collaged together for Tyson (oh yeah, just inflate his ego a little more), some weird thing that _did not look natural_ for Diachi, a large amount of money for Hiro, a voucher for a beauty spa for Hilary (he wasn't hinting at anything was he? Hmm, sneaky) and for me, "oh, sorry Rei, I left yours back in my room, let me grab it." Ok then!

He left and Mariah glared at me. "You like _him_ don't you?!"

See I haven't exactly told Mariah the whole _gay_ thing. "Of course, who doesn't like Kai?"

"You know what I mean Kon!" she snapped. She stood up and glared down at me. I really don't like this, so I shall stand and use my height advantage... ok when did she put on high heels? Height advantage: GONE!

"Ok so yeah, I like him, not you. What's the big deal?" how did she figure this out! Please don't kill me, please don't kill me! We had successfully gained all attention, which Mariah must love.

"What's the big deal?!" she screeched. Ow, my ears. "We were supposed to get _married!_ But you've fallen in _love_ with _him_!"

"Marriage was never part of anything, that was all part of your fucking fantasy!"

Mariah gasped, rearing back then coming back tenfold. "What do you see in him?! He betrayed everyone! And you know he's going to do it again. He's a bastard, his grandfather tried to steal everyone's bitbeasts through the aid of Kai and his mentor is a creep! That's not good signs as to how Kai's going to turn out. Forget him and _love me!_"

"Mariah get over yourself and your stupid me-before-the-world attitude! What do you want me to say? I hate Kai Hiwatari! He's a fucking bastard and anyone who does like him has to be insane. He's selfish, snobby, rude, cold and an absolute prick! I wish he never came back, actually I wish he had never become part of this team in the first place. I hate everything about him and I wish he would just _die!_"

By the time I finished, I realised I was panting. I waited for Mariah's reaction, but got none. Actually, she wasn't even looking at me. Hello! I just made a big speech and you didn't even fucking listen!

"What?" I froze when I heard that voice. Now I knew what Mariah and everyone else was looking at. I turned slowly.

"Kai, no, it's..." not how it looks? I know he wasn't here when Mariah demanded that I love her, meaning he came in sometime during my speech. Oh, shit.

The present in Kai's hands slowly fell to the ground as his brow furrowed and he stared at the floor. He looked up at me confused, then his expression hardened and he glared. "Tell Mr Dickinson that G Revolutions has been reverted to a team of four, and they're going to need a new captain, and Rei, the feeling's mutual you fucking cat freak" he said coldly as he grabbed his hoodie and walked out the front door, slamming the door behind him.

I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for chaos to ensue. And it did.

"You are so dead, Kon," snarled Tala as he grabbed his own jacket. "Kai's leaving this time," at this he glared at Tyson. "And you can't say he won't go."

Tyson nodded and glared at me. "Nice Rei, nice."

Everyone started grabbing his or her jackets, going out to look for Kai. He couldn't stay out there while it was snowing, he'd freeze. All he was wearing was jeans, a t-shirt and his thin hoodie and it was bloody cold out there.

I stayed frozen in my spot, watching everyone in some sort of daze until Mariah brought me back to earth.

"Well I say good riddance!" she proclaimed, crossing her arms. She probably should have said that, _after_ everyone had left. However, right now, I didn't care if they killed her. I really didn't, because if they didn't kill her, I would.

"Shut up you bitch!" I hissed at her. "This is your entire fault, and you know it! I'm going out to help find Kai, and when we get back _with Kai_, you and your slutty outfit had better be on a plane back to China. Just get out Mariah, and never come back."

She gaped at me and Bryan smirked at me as I grabbed my jacket. He clapped me on the back and grinned dangerously. "Let's go."

"Hang on!" I quickly grabbed the present Kai had dropped and it unravelled in my hands. It was wrapped in a black hair wrap, a red one, and a gold one. They were gorgeous. When I saw what they were wrapped around, my heart almost broke and I glared at Mariah again. I hurriedly wrapped the present back up and stuffed it in my pocket. "Ok, _now_ we go."

* * *

We were walking in one large group, thankfully Mariah-less (yes! SCORE!) and we planned to split up when we got to the bridge, because if Kai wasn't there (seeing as we'd checked everywhere else) then we didn't know where he was.

"So why the hell did you keep speaking and going on if you knew Kai was there and had come in at the worst possible time?" asked Ian, kicking at the snow.

I looked down at him and sighed. "That's the thing! I _didn't_ know he was there. I was so caught up in my anger towards Mariah that I didn't even notice his arrival! Now I've seriously screwed everything."

Tala sighed and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "Look, we're not dragging Kai away, but we won't be able to make him stay."

"But you will," said Tyson as he linked arms with me. He smiled encouragingly. "After all, who can deny the Majestic White Tiger, Almighty Kai-Watcher, Fabulous Pink Apron-Wearing Cook?"

I stared at him. I hadn't told anyone about the Almighty Kai-Watcher part. He saw my expression and grinned. "I've known you for years Rei; I think I knew something was missing when you told us your codename."

I laughed.

* * *

We arrived at the bridge a hell of a lot quicker than I would have liked because I still hadn't figured out what I was going to say.

There was a lone figure leaning against the bridge and I knew straight away that it was Kai. Tala pushed me forward and nodded, and then he and the others went in the opposite direction.

I took a deep breath and, -ok let's do this later. I turned back around.

"Running away Kon?"

I winced and turned. Kai's crimson eyes stood out in the dark and it was somewhat creepy. He titled his head to the side and watched me as I walked towards him.

"Here," I said, holding out the present. "You dropped this."

Kai looked at it, then up at me. When he didn't take it from me I sighed and pushed it into his hands. "Mariah's going home... I'd like to say she's sorry but she isn't."

No reaction still. "Look Kai, I'm sorry. Please don't leave the team! We need you. Mariah was annoyed with something she had found out and was saying something and I said what I said because I was sort of being sarcastic and trying to prove a point and you just came in at the worst possible time and it's bloody freezing out here and you have to come home or you'll get sick and we have to finish the presents and you should have seen Mariah's face when I told her to go home and never come back and I'm kind of just rambling now and jumping all over the place and stop me when you're ready or not so I'll just keep going then but I'm kind of running out of things to say and can you tell I'm nervous and –mph!"

Kai silenced me by pressing his lips against mine. The kiss was brief. He pulled away and leaned his forehead against mine, cupping my face in his hands. "Do you not shut up?"

"I – uh – um – no?" I was still kind of getting over the kiss you just gave me! "What was that, just then? I mean, was it, I don't know-"

Kai linked his fingers with mine and leaned forward until I could feel his breath against my ear. "I. Love. You."

"Oh... huh... wait what?!"

"Are you usually this slow?"

"No! I mean, oh my god! I love you too, I do, I do, I do, I do!"

"We're not getting married Rei."

"Can we?"

Kai laughed and kissed me again. He pulled away and handed me the present. He glanced down at it and frowned. "The wrappings munted."

"Yeah, it sort of fell open... not lying, it seriously did!"

"So you saw what was in it?" he asked, slowly unravelling the cloths. He pulled out the necklace that I knew was inside and held it up so the moonlight – wow I just realised it's _nighttime!_ Wow- reflected off the silver.

"I thought it suited you," he explained, looking down at me. There was a silver tiger curled around the outline of a silver heart hanging from the thin silver chain.

"I love it, not as much as you, mind you. You could have just kissed me as a gift, less expensive."

"I'll take it back then..." Kai smirked and started wrapping it back up.

"No! I want it, I like it. Please?"

Kai laughed and walked behind me, putting it around my neck and fastening it. I toyed with the tiger, grinning at it.

I turned to Kai and kissed him, praying for a different reaction to the other night. Yay! He didn't fail! Yes!

Kai broke the kiss and smiled at me. My heart stopped. I think... this is what Tala had been talking about.

There was cheering behind us and we turned. Tala was jumping up and down, arms clutching Bryan's and screaming to me, "that's it, that's it! _That's_ the smile!"

Suddenly Tala landed wrong and fell onto Bryan and they both went toppling to the ground.

"They wouldn't happen to..."

"Like each other, yeah."

"Huh."

"But neither will admit it."

"It's not like you did."

"And neither did you."

"Hey Kai? Ever wanted to play matchmaker?"

**

* * *

**

Thank you dear reviewers! 7 of them! And guess what?! That took us to over 100 reviews! Now, can you believe I finally got the Christmas chapter up?!

**Ok, there is only about... three chapters left, including the epilogue so, oh wow. Hehe, nearly done!**

**The song sung by our dear Kai Hiwatari was So Close by Jon McLaughlin**

**TTFN**

**Kavbj**


	12. Matchmaking Pro's AndAndOoh! Ooh!

**I am soooooooooooooo sorry and I really can't think of any good reasons/excuses as to 1) why this took so freaking long and 2) why it's so short. But I'm back on track now, so hopefully (when reading this, add a hell of a lot of emphasis on the word hopefull, will you) I shall have this done within the next two months... if I'm lucky... and believe it or not, I may have a sequel planned :D but I ain't too sure bout that yet... so yeah, here you go and again I AM SOOOO SORRY!!**

* * *

_**Chapter 12 - Matchmaking Pro's And...And...Ooh! Ooh! FESTIVALS!**_

You know the gap between Christmas and New Years is really uneventful, even if you're living with the same idiots I am. Though the Russians added a little fun with Tala's mood swings that seemed to become more evident and then there was Ian's pranking, Spencer's intelligence that got Kenny so annoyed it was funny and then there was Bryan's mental state and masochist humour.

Oh but apart from that, I did get a call from Lee. I haven't heard from Mariah though, thank the good lords.

The conversation with Lee was amusing to say the least.

"Hey Lee, what's up?" I thought that if I went in not knowing what was going on then... ok yeah, I don't know what I was thinking, but hey, I thought I was doing all right at the time.

"I'll tell you what's up! My little sister is still balling her eyes out!" ah, so that's what that sobbing is in the background.

"Hey, Rei!" he whispered into the phone. "Don't believe what I say. Way to go man! Someone needed to bring my brat of a sister down to earth but if Mariah hears no yelling she'll be suspicious so, HOW COULD YOU?!"

I grinned; ah, that was Lee for you. "Quite easily, she's rather annoying."

"I totally agree that, that was the wrong thing to do!" he shouted back at me. See ever since childhood we had understood when the other was speaking code, so right now he's saying that he agrees with what I did and what Mariah did was wrong. Aren't I incredibly smart!

So yeah, that's how _that_ conversation went down.

Then there was the other day when Bryan snapped and tried to strangle Tala. Apparently the 'snapping' happens a lot. We've witnessed it twice now. The first time he didn't try to strangle anything... actually; he just looked like he was having an average nightmare until it turned into a night terror. They are scary things to witness.

Moreover, Kai pulled me away and dragged me back to bed before it got to its worst, and he covered my ears as well so I'm guessing it sounds as scary as it would look. Hehe, I'm guessing... which means I'm _thinking_.... OH MY GOD!!! I"M _THINKING!!!_

Amazing, I know.

What else happened... let's see... you know what, trust me when I say _you do not want to know!_ Now that I _think_ (hehe) about it, I realised that every single moment was horrifying, in some way or another. (I got peanut butter in my hair again, nearly saw Tyson naked, got yelled at by Hilary, had Bryan try to kill me and he hadn't even snapped, made Kai furious, played doctors and nurses with Diachi, learnt the dance to Max and Tyson's theme song, learnt the fucking theme song, tripped _up_ the stairs, kissed Bob a good thousand times and had paint sprayed all over me. And that was all on the _second fucking day!_ And the day before that, Boxing Day, I got so many paper/cardboard cuts it would make a freaking emo jealous. And that wasn't the worst of it. Shall I go on? No? Didn't think so.)

But yeah, it's New Year's Eve, and we're going to some carnival fair-y thing. I don't know, all I knew was that it was supposed to be really fun and pretty. I was looking forward to the fireworks – more chances to kiss my smexy Kai Hiwatari.

Speaking of my smexy Kai Hiwatari, where the hell is he?

With a groan, I pulled myself from the couch and started searching through the house. I actually found them pretty easily, I'm just amazing that way... or it could be because he and Tala were leaning against the wall either side of the door that lead to the room exactly opposite from the lounge room? Nah, it's definitely the fact that I'm just amazing that way.

"What ya doin?" I asked, moving Kai's arms so that I could sit in his lap. His arms slid around my waist and he held me loosely.

Tala shrugged, eyes shifting to the door and then quickly back again. I raised an eyebrow, knowing something was up. However, I was a genius, and I knew too well by now that if either of the Russians did not want you to know something, they weren't going to tell you no matter how hard you strived for an answer. This is actually very irritating, especially when my boyfriend (SQUEAL!) is one of those deliciously hot Russians.

"Thank you Rei," Kai murmured, pressing his lips against the back of my neck after shifting my hair out of the way. I felt his eyelashes flutter against my skin as he leant his forehead gently on the back of my neck. And somewhere in there, I _knew _he had rolled his eyes at me. Aw, well, what can you do?

"_Not_ speak your thoughts out loud?" Tala asked. "I'm just guessing here but that might help somewhat, kitty."

I AINT NO FUCKING KITTY!

And that sent them off into waves of laughter aimed at poor moi.

* * *

Later that day was not good, because Tyson, Max and Diachi managed to make Kai angrier then I have ever seen him. I mean, he was _furious_, and death was sure to come to _someone_.

I made a grab for his arm, which was shaking with pent up rage, but he turned away swiftly and I fell off the couch instead. And yeah, Bob and I are _closer than ever! _Hahaha, hahaha, haha - ugh!

Tyson was guiltily holding up a gold chain, snapped, and missing a very important pendant, which was now sitting in the palm of Max's hand, scratched and ruined after Diachi's freaking beyblade had ran over it.

How the hell that all happened, I don't know. I heard a lot of arguing, then screaming then silence. Then they came in, hands behind backs, and entered the living room where Kai and I were with Hiro and the Russians. They held out their hands, opened their palms and Kai froze, and then remembered how to breathe.

Now there is yelling, a lot of yelling. "Fuck you, Granger!"

"Kai," Tyson pleaded, as he began following Kai around the room. "Look, we _didn't mean to!_ It was an accident!"

"It was my _mother's! And she's __**fucking dead!**_" he screamed at them, eyes glistening wetly. "Where the fuck did you get it?" Kai paused and glared viciously. "It was on the bedside table... you took it from our fucking room!" and he lunged but Tyson managed to pull back in time.

Kai rounded in on them and Tala stood, grabbing them roughly and shoving them towards the couch. He turned to Kai and I thanked him for doing it because... well... I don't think I'd look good-looking like mashed up sushi. Hehehe...

There were words in Russian which I had long ago (half an hour) given up on understanding and then Kai was gone through the front door and my team was up on their feet and I was already grabbing my jacket when Bryan's voice came through.

"Leave him," he said calmly. I turned to him, meeting blank moonlight-coloured eyes evenly. "He's fine, he's blowing off steam." Then he smiled so sweetly, I forced down the motion that wanted to go 'aw' and instead I stared and slowly smiled back.

"Oh my god!" I yelled, suddenly remembering where we were going tonight. "A _festival_! We're going to a festival tonight!" and that ended everything and gained a hell of a lot of stares.

* * *

Kai returned some time later, noticeably calmer.

"Kai!" I exclaimed as he walked through the door, and I ran at him, arms held open. I jumped, hoping for him to catch me, but he smirked and hung his jacket up, and I smashed into Bob, giving him a large kiss that was _originally_ made for _Kai_.

"Kai," said Bryan as I peeled myself from Bob. "Your boyfriend's cheating with the floor, aren't you worried?"

"Not so much about that than his mental state."

"Da," was the quiet Russian reply, and I managed to look up in time to see Kai wince at his own words as Bryan walked towards the kitchen, fingers curled inwards. I knew he was looking for Tala – who I hadn't seen much of lately. Huh.

"I shouldn't have said that," Kai muttered as he gently helped me up, and then embraced me properly.

After a couple of moments, Kai finally sighed and pushed against my chest. "Rei? Rei you can let go now. _Rei!"_ and he tried to push me away, but my arms were latched around his neck, tightly too. Haha, go Rei! You are stronger than Kai Hiwatari! Ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Bring it!

Oh, fuck! Do not throw hands in air when cheering! Dammit, Kai just got away! _Fuck!_ Damn you, stupid arms!

"Oh my god," sighed Tala, who had just entered the hallway. He stared at me, face palmed and then walked back into the kitchen.

...I'm guessing what I said came aloud.

* * *

I joined the lot of them in the kitchen a couple of minutes later, once I was done yelling at my arms that is, and walked in on another dramatic scene which included Tala on one side of the room, and Bryan on another, both looking absolutely murderous.... that made no sense... oh well.

This time there was _yelling_ in Russian, it's taking a step up, which is even harder to try to understand – trust me, I, the fantastic person that I am, would know. Now see, much as Kai used to, Bryan apparently has a habit of throwing the nearest object at whomever he is so incredibly mad at, so we could only watch as he grabbed the cutting board that had been sitting there, _the wooden one_, and threw it across the room.

Tala swore and turned to the side. The board hit the wall with a thunk and left a dent, somehow not piercing through the plaster like it did the last time _Kai_ threw it at Tyson. You can imagine how well that went.

But it seems Bryan was smart, and realised that his accuracy with knives was a lot better than that with any other object, as we had discovered when Diachi walked into the kitchen during the night and suddenly found himself stuck to the wall by four knives that were pierced through his clothing. His scream was louder than my own, and I have a pretty loud scream, something I'm very proud of.

"Yeah except you sound like a girl," whispered Max, smiling at me despite the situation.

Anyway, (I glared at him), Bryan had now grabbed the knife block wooden chunky thing and was pulling the knives from it, starting with one of the bread knives. And he aims; he throws aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand he thankfully _just_ misses.

"Oh fuck off Bryan!" yelled Tala. "Put the fucking knives away!"

Bryan sneered and threw another, nicking Tala's jacket and pinning it to the wall. Tala growled and jerked his shoulder free, ripping the fabric of his jacket. I pouted; I liked that jacket and was hoping to steal it for my own.

I wondered why neither Kai, Spencer nor Ian was doing anything to try to stop this, but they were looking on rather boredly, as though they had seen this happen a thousand times.

By now, Bryan was standing on the bench, two last knives in hand. He threw one, cursing when it missed, and then suddenly Tala, who had slowly been making his way around to Bryan, dived for the teen. He wrapped his arms around Bryan's knees and Bryan promptly fell on his bum. His knees hung over the edge of the bench and he stared ahead, shocked, before desperation flittered across his face and he dragged the final blade in his hand along his leg, tearing through the fabric and cutting his leg.

"I hate you," he whispered as Tala took the knife from him and pressed his forehead to Bryan's.

"I hate you."

"I know," Tala whispered back, stepping between Bryan's legs.

"I hate you... I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, _I hate you..._" Bryan started shaking, his hand moving for the knife, but Kai was already taking it away. He pretended to trip on the way, bumping against Tala.

I held my breath, hoping my boyfriend (did I happen to mention how fucking much I love fucking saying that? No? Well shall I begin? I LOVE FUCKING SAYING THAT AND SUCK CRAP TO ALL YOU SORE LOSERS WHO WILL NEVER HAVE THE CHANCE BECAUSE HE IS MINE! MWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ok, I'm done... for now...) had done it, but instead of Tala's lips meeting Bryan's, they brushed along Bryan's cheek and the shell of his ear.

"Shh," Tala hushed, as he wrapped his arms around Bryan, gently rocking him as he cradled the shaking teen to his chest. "I know, its ok." Tala's voice was broken and torn, blue eyes staring straight ahead, as he pulled Bryan in closer and Bryan's head rest in the crook of his neck.

"I hate you," Bryan whispered tiredly, eyes slipping close and arms falling limp.

Tala nodded, a tear slipping down his cheek and falling into Bryan's hair. "...I know."

* * *

Ok today was being very weird. I mean, it really, really was! Then everything that had happened was weird. But right now, we are heading towards the destination of the _festival_ – see I still remember – and Tala and Bryan are on opposite sides to each other and that sentence made no sense but hey what do you expect from Rei Fucking, I-Am-Super-Duper-Awesome-Like-Scooby-Dooby-Doo, I-Have-A-New-Nick-Name, Nick-Name-Is-One-Word, Horrible-Speller Kon? Ex_actly!_ You see what I'm getting at!

Do you know that after all that wonderful, glorious thinking, we have still not managed to walk all the way to the freaking... freaking... fuck! I forgot!

"Kai-ai!" I whined, latching onto his arm and pouting as I looked up at him. "I forgo-ot!"

Kai sighed and muttered something under his breath, looking very sexy while he did so, then said, "festival, Rei, _dear_, festival." Aw! He called me dear! Yes, I am ignoring the sarcasm he used when he said it! Ooh, you are very observant!

* * *

There is something very dangerous about kebabs... it's got to be the sticks. I mean, they're so pokey! It's like BAM!! And you could lose an eye. I would know, I think I've nearly taken out at least one of everyone's eyes, almost got Kai seven times... and he only has two, so that would have been interesting. I also managed to stab my own tongue and then Kai's when I tried to feed him some. That was fun...

The paper lanterns were all glowy like and there were people _everywhere_. But it was fun, especially when I managed to convince my dear hot sexy make-others-jealous boyfriend to try every single sideshow game and he –naturally- won every single one... so I kind of have a lot of stuffed animals at the moment. You know, they're dangerous too. I have crashed into 11 posts because I can't see where I'm going, and then whenever I have to turn to someone, I knock 'em over with the toys. I've given up on talking to everyone because when I say things they don't exactly hear them right and seeing as... well let's not go into Tyson's genius interpretations. Ok, I just used a word that has 15 letters... that is majorly epic. Bow down to my awesomeness.

Hilary had yet to arrive, thankfully, because I really did not need to see her coming onto Tala and Bryan, as she had been doing the past couple of days. Mucho disturbing...o... mucho disturbingo... I dunno, does it look like I would speak any kind of Spanish?

"No, not really," Kai answered truthfully, shrugging when I mock glared at him. "Do you really think you'd be able to?" he challenged.

Oh-ho! He...he... knows me too well.

* * *

Later on in the night, and I was sick of watching Bryan and Tala avoid each other. Trust me, it's really annoying. I don't know why, but it just is. And no, it has nothing to do with the fact that I just suck at matchmaking... which I do(n't).

But yeah, after whining pitifully at my boyfriend and gaining more weird stares from people (more meaning more than usual... don't you judge me!), I finally managed to convince Kai to help me. He's so sweet isn't he? And no, it had nothing to do with the fact that I threatened to sing Tyson and Max's theme song and do the matching dance in public until he agreed. He may have some dignity left, I however, do not.

"Bryan!" Kai called, his hand wrapped around my wrist as we weaved in between people to get to the dangerous-pale-haired-but-totally-sexy-and-it's-too-bad-I'm-with-Kai, Russian. Do you know that I am so smart I just managed to accidently degrade my own hot boyfriend?! My bad!

Bryan waited until we were standing in front of him before asking, -cough-cough-demanding-cough, "what the fuck do you guys want now?"

I raised my fists. Oh, yeah? Bring it oh-n pretty boy!

"Fuck off kitty," was all I got in reply. Yes, I still have the annoying talking aloud habit. Bloody freaking hell!

It took lots of convincing and threatening in a number of different languages, before we finally managed to get Bryan to agree with our plan, though he wasn't aware of our true goal.

See, there was this stage set up, with local bands performing. Our plan was to get Bryan up there and get him to perform, while making sure Tala was in the right spot to see said singing Russian, because as Kai had explained to me some time ago, Tala really wanted Bryan to play instruments again. Something happened to Bryan in the Abbey that stopped him playing music, and none of the Russians even know what it is.

So yeah, Tals will be really, really happy and then I shall pop up after they loving make out session in front of the huge crowd and be like 'oh yeah! I'm a genius. Yes, yes, thank you, thank you, this was my entire plan. You can contact me on...' oh well shit, I still don't know the Granger's home number.

"I still don't understand why I have to sing in front of all these people," grumbled Bryan while Kai sweet-talked the band about to go on to wait just one song so that Bryan and he could go on. That was apparently part of the deal my smexy boyfriend had made with Bryan; that he would go on stage with him.

"It'll so be totally worth it, trust me," I said as Kai started walking to us, smirking and nodding his head. "I know all."

"Well, fuck, I'm definitely screwed then, aren't I?" hissed Bryan as Kai grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him towards the stage.

I refused the urge to poke out my tongue... refusing...refusing...refu-oh screw him! Mmmmm! I poked my tongue out childishly, just as Kai looked back over his shoulder. He raised an eyebrow and I froze, before waving sheepishly and darting off to find Tala.

I could hear the piano start up, and I glanced back to see Kai positioned in front of the instrument, urging Bryan to start. But Bryan had his eyes clenched shut and his hands in fists, so Kai sighed and started singing.

I have so much mental strength and determination, I even managed to resist the urge to stop and watch/listen to my sexy Kai. Do you how fucking hard that is?! You should all be bowing down to me, like _right now_. That's right, get down.... none of you are actually bloody moving, are you?

And judging by the stares, I just said my thoughts aloud... again... if only Bob were here, he would listen.

I am so good at finding people, do you know that? It's like some sensor thing; I just _know_ where they are going to be. The fact that Tala and the others were already heading over at the sound of Kai's voice kind of helped, but that's not the point.

"Tala, hey, mind coming with me? No? Perfect," I grinned and grabbed Tala by the arm, and he opened and closed his mouth a few times. I know, I kind of have that affect on people. They are just so amazed by my beauty, and skill and –

"Bry...?" or it could be that too. Either way, your choice, I'm cool with it. "What's Bryan doing up there?" Tala asked incredulously, weaving quickly through the crowd to get to the edge of the stage.

We reached the stage just as Bryan and Kai noticed us, and if Bryan wasn't choked up before, he certainly was now. Kai smiled warmly at me, still playing and singing, and Tala was staring up at Bryan in amazement.

"Go, Bry, sing," whispered Tala, his hands curling by his sides. As though hearing him, Bryan turned to look away and closed his eyes tightly, shoulders shaking as he bit his lip. Tala growled and turned on his heel. "Figures."

I looked back to Bryan, eyes widening as tears fell down his cheeks. I tried to call out to Tala, but my voice was lost to the noise of Bryan's voice as he grabbed a guitar and mic, grabbing Tala's attention as he took over from Kai.

Tala froze in his tracks and slowly turned to look at Bryan, who was shaking, clearly scared but determined to do it for Tala. What the hell had Boris done to Bryan to make him afraid of playing music, I would never know but as Tala pulled himself onto the stage and wrapped his arms tightly around Bryan, and Kai grinned down at me, I knew that it didn't really matter right now.

"_Because you live, I live, I live."_

Though Bryan and Tala were now 'friends' again, I seriously, seriously was worrying about the state of their brains, because they DID NOT FOLLOW THE PLAN!!! Not that they knew about the plan, BUT STILL! THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO KISS AND DECLARE THEIR UNDYING LOVE FOR EACH OTHER! AND YES, I HAVE SPENT TOO MUCH TIME IN THE PRESENCE OF HILARY AND YES, I SHALL STOP YELLING NOW AND YES, I AM PRAYING I AM NOT SAYING ANYTHING ALOUD OR YES, I WILL BE SERIOUSLY SCREWED. If there's a plus side, the fireworks are in two minutes and so I still have a hope of them kissing then. C'mon Tala! I can still claim to have set them up.

Tala was currently raving how great it was to hear Bryan sing and play again, and he hadn't left the quiet Russian's side since they hopped down from the stage.

Ok, ok, ok, ready?! "10, 9, 8, 7 – "

"Rei what the fuck are you doing?" Kai asked with a sigh, wrapping his arm around my waist.

"Counting down."

"You're a bloody idiot, you're a little off... we should be starting to countdown..." he trailed off and I quickly added "what? So I just randomly started counting down while everyone stared?"

Kai nodded as he said, "now!"

We –meaning my team – began counting down at the top of our lungs, heads titled towards the sky. I think both Kai's eyes and mine looked over to Tala and Bryan as we neared midnight. I really prayed that at least one of them were a hopeless romantic, but as the fireworks started and I dragged Kai down for a kiss, nothing happened between the two.

Instead, Tala said something to Bryan, which made him smirk, before his eyes turned wide as he seemed to take in the true meaning. Laughing, Tala made to kiss Bryan on the cheek, but Bryan purposefully moved his head so their lips met, and it was Tala's turn to turn wide-eyed.

Smirking, Bryan whacked Tala up the head, before grabbing him by the collar and kissing him again.

Well then.... THEY JUST HAD TO BE FUCKING DIFFERENT, DIDNT THEY?! FUCK THE PLAN THEN! HAVE IT YOUR WAY, YOU HOT SEXY RUSSIAN BASTARDS! SEE IF I GIVE A DAMN!

"Rei!" snapped Kai, "will you _shut the fuck up?!"_

"Sorry, Kai!"

* * *

**So yes, there you go. I finally got Bryan and Tala together after all this time. Two chapters to go :D and one of those is the epilogue so... :D again. And again, sorry bout the shortness of this chapter. I have a feeling the next two will be around this length too, but they sound better if I put them as seperate chapters, rather than the one. Truuuuuuuuuust me :D**

**Well thank you for all those lovely reviews, this thing currently has 126 or something (major squeal) and yes, I know, Kai and Rei finally fucking kissed! It only took me...10 or 11 chapters :D don't you love me?**

**Haha, ta-ta**

**Kavbj**


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